Book: Eerie Basin

 Book: Eerie Basin

Author: Ivy Pochoda

Pages: 72

This is my 96th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Erin tends bar at the last dive left in gentrified Red Hook, Brooklyn, where old-timers spin tales of the bar's legacy and the waterfront's crime-ridden past.  Her boss, Jimmy, a real estate magnate responsible for much of the neighborhood's shiny transformation, also has a story to share.  Back when he was a struggling beat cop, 2 neglected boys introduced him to an ancietn creature that made Jimmy's dreams come true.  Nightmares too.  Erin doesn't believe a word.  The bar is her life.  But this bar at the end of the world is also home to a deadly stowaway.  And it's looking for a new host.

This was a pretty good short story.  I am still working through all the Amazon Free Reads I have collected over the years, and in the evenings, I can take an hour and burn through some of these short books.  This one had good character development, a good mystery, and a good ending.  I enjoyed it.

Stars: 4

Book: Lovers at the museum

 Book: Lovers At the Museum

Author: Isabel Allende

Pages: 25

This is my 95th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Love, be it wild or tender, often defies logic.  In fact, at times, the only rationale behind the instant connection of two souls is plain magic.  Bibina Aranda, runaway bride, wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum in Bibao still wearing her wedding dress, draped in the loving arms of a naked man whose name she doesn't know.  She and the man with no clothes, Indar Zubieta, attempt to explain to the authorities how they got there.  It's a story of love at first sight and experience beyond compare, one that involves a dreamlike journey through the museum.  But the lover's transcendent night bears no resemblance to the crude one Detective Larramendi attemps to reconstruct.  And no amount of fantastical descriptions can convince the irritated inspector of the truth.  

Stars: 3

Book: Tesla's Attic

 Book: Tesla's Attic

Author: Neal Shusterman

Pages: 272

This is my 94th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

After their home burns down, 14 year old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited.  When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he's hit in the head by a toaster.  That's just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there.  After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids - Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent - and they discovered that all of the objects have extraordinary properties.  What's more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble.  It's as if the attic itself has an intelligence - and a purpose.  Ultimately Nick learns that the genius Nikola Tesla places the items-his last inventions - in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted.  Nick and his new friends must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe.  But the task is fraught with peril-in addition to the dnagers inherent in Tesla's mysteriou and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is detemined to stop Nick and alter desitny to achieve its own devious ends.  It's a lot for a guy to handle, especially when he'd much rather fly under the radar as the new kid in town.

This was a pretty good book. It is definitley a middle grade book, but I have a lot of Shusterman books on my shelf, so I figured I would try these.  It is the first book of a trilogy.  It is well written with a nice mystery that keeps you guessing through the whole book.  I liked all of the characters, and the story kept a good pace.  I am looking forward to reading the next one.

Stars: 4

Book: The Easy Life in Kamusari

 Book: The Easy Life in Kamusari

Author: Shion Miura

Pages: 205

This is my 93rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village o Kamusari.  No phone, no internet, no shopping.  Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is "take it easy".  At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast.  Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life.  But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.  Yuki learns to fell trees and plant saplings.  He begins to embrace local festivals, he's mesmerized by legends of the mountain, ad he might be falling in love.  In learning to respect the forest on Mt. Kamusari for its majestic qualities and its inexplicable secrets, Yuki starts to appreciate Kamusari's harmony with nature and its ancient traditions. 

This was an okay book.  Kind of boring.  It is very short, and I listened to it, so maybe that was the problem.  It is slow paced, and just about everyday life - not a lot of excitement.  It isn't well translated.

Stars: 3

Book: The Price of Honey

 Book: The Price of Honey

Author: Liane Moriarty

Pages: 34

This is my 92nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

When a tech billionaire's widow and ex-wives gather for his funeral, they witness a final reversal of fortune.  In the car on the way to her husband's funeral, Honey Beckett still can hardly believe that Barney is actually dead.  Granted, he was more than twice her age.  But he was Barney Beckett, visionary tech genius, full of surprsies - by turns romantic, inspirational, and controlling.  Always in control.  At the service, she impulsively goes to sit with the 3 ex-wives: practical Rita, fiery Svetlana, ambitious Meredith.  Each broke up with the other's marriage in turn - and now, one final betrayal awaits.

This book was just meh.  It is a short story, and a recent Amazon free reads.  I really like Moriarty's books, but this one was a miss.  It started out okay, but she never made it go anywhere and the ending just fell apart.

Stars: 2

Book: The Blanks

 Book: The Blanks

Author: Grady Hendrix

Pages: 35

This is my 91st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Residents have an unspoken pact with the island's unnatural inhbitants: ignore them, live happily.  But in this thrilling short story, one boy can't look away - and pays the price.  Jeckle Island offers Rachel's children the chance to spend summers roaming wild and free, as long as they follow the rules.  But when her son comes face to face with a terror they dare not speak of, she must prepare for their perfect world to change.  Forever.

I have not read any Grady Hendrix books, but this was an Amazon Free Read I had on my shelf.  Very short story, but Grady does a great job packing a whole story into 35 pages.  Terror at its finest.  Had a great laid out story, and I had no idea where it was going.  Creepy and heartbreaking, I am glad I read this one.

Stars: 4.5

Book: A Night To Remember

 Book: A Night To Remember

Author: Walter Lord

Pages: 209

This is my 90th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

At first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound.  Passengers described it as the impact of a heavy wave, a scraping noise, o the tearing of a long calico strip.  In fact, it was the sound of the world's most famous ocean liner striking an iceberg, and it served as the death knell for 1500 souls.  In the next 2 hours and 40 minutes, the maiden voyage of the Titanic became one of history's worst maritime accidents.  As the ship's deck slipped closer to the icy waterline, women pleaded with their husbands to join them on lifeboats.  Men changed into their evening clothes to meet death with dignity.  And in steerage, hundreds fought bitterly against certain death.  At 2:15am, the ship's band played "Autumn".  Five minutes later, the Titanic was gone.  Based on interviews with 63 survivors, Lord's moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the 20th century's bleakest nights.

This was a great book.  I love a good non-fiction, and this one was very well written.  It is older - written in the 50s, bt the detail in this book was on another level.  I have read many stories about the titanic over the years, but this was really well told.  It is a short book, but it captures alot in those pages.  Check this one out.

Stars: 5