Book: The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits

 Book: The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits

Author: Jennifer Weiner

Pages: 384

This is my 205th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were once as dependent on each other as sisters could be, but it's been 2 decades since they've spoken.  As a pop sensatin in their early twenties, the sisters experienced the ultimate highs of celebrity, until they were driven apart one terrible night.  Now, in their early forties, Zoe is a suburban mom in New Jersey, and Cassie is living alone, off-grid in Alaska.  In this story of estranged sisters, Zoe's teenage daughter Cherry is desperate to bring the women back together - and unearth the truth behind their estrangement.  As long-buried secrets surface, Cassie and Zoe are forced to confront their past choices and betrayals and decide whether they ca n open to forgiveness and reclaiming the strength of their sisterhood. 

This was an okay book.  I liked it overall, but Cassie started to really wear on me.  Her self loathing was relentless even when her niece really needed her.  I liked the idea of the story, but just wish I cared more about the characters.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Hazelwood

 Book: The Hazelwood

Author: Melissa Albert

Pages: 400

This is my 204th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

17 year old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels.  But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away - by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stores are set.  Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: "Stay away from the Hazel Wood:.  Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother's cultish fans.  But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, aHinterland superfan who may have his won reasons for wanting to help her.  To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began- and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Stars:3 

Book: Brigands and Breadknives

 Book: Brigands and Breadknives

Author: Travis Baldree

Pages: 336

This is my 203rd of the year

What Amazon Says:

Ferm has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller's life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend's coffee shop.  What could be a better pairing?  Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her.  If only things were so simple.  It turns out that fixing your life isn't a one-time prospect, not as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.  A drunken and desperate night sees the ratkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness of silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.  As together they fend off a rogue's gallery of ne'er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.

On a secondary character - not my favorite.

Stars: 3

Book: Prarie Fires

 Book: Prarie Fires

Author: Caroline Fraser

Pages: 656

This is my 202nd book for the year

What Amazon Says:

Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who srvived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books.  But the true saga of her life has never been fully told.  Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser - the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series - masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.  Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's turmultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.  The Little House books for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds.  But Wilder's real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty.  It was only in her sisties, after losing nearly everything in the GreatDepression, that she turned to children's books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading - and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rages to riches episodes in American letters.  Spanning nearly a centry of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wild'ers dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mytbology of self-reliance.  

This was an excellent book.  I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie reruns, and reading the books, so I was intrigued when I found this book at our local used bookstore.  It is well written, and delves into not only Laura's life, but the life of her parents and even a bit of her siblings.  Her life was very hard from the beginning, and I had no idea that she and her family moved around so much or that she went years and years without seeing her family due to that distance.  Great book - if you like the Little House stories, you should check this out.

Stars: 5

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 8 - A Parade of Horribles

 Book: A Parade of Horribles

Author: Matt Dinniman

Pages: 704

This is my 201st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

As chaoe and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they're forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks.  Well, normal for the dungeon.  Races.  Get from point A to point B, and don't come in last.  After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging.  It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.  Ignore those strange glitches that are occuring with increaing frequency.  Don't listen to those whispers about what's happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles.  Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means.  Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it "a coming-out party for the ages".Everthing is fine, Crawler.  I repeat, evertyhing is fine.  Carl hates that it's business as usual.  The rules of this floor have taken away his agency.  That just will not do.  So Carl is planning a party of his own.  It's a plan so dangerous, so insance, he can't even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it.  Because if it goes wrong, it's not just the end of Carl and Donut.  No.  The stakes are higher than they have ever been. 

Another great installment in the Crawler world.  Dinniman continues to build this incredible world, adding some new characters, but keeping faithful to old favorites.  Happy to see the reappearance of Uzi Jesus.  I continue to take in these books in audio form and I continue to believe this is the best way to consume them.  Jeff the narrator is phenomenal.  So talented.  What a pair he and Dinniman make!  If you are into incredible world building, humor, high stakes, and quite the game, these books are for you.  I am sad I have reached the end of the released series.  Going to be an impatient wait for book 9.

Stars: 5 

Book: Good Joy, Bad Joy

Book: Good Joy, Bad Joy

Author: Mikki Brammer

Pages: 304

This is my 200th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

For over 80 years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules"  She's been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town.  But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live.  Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their due, and she seems at peace with all that she's squeezed out of her long life.  Yet Joy realizes she can't say the same.  Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left togehter, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone - and into a bit of trouble.  But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there's a way for her to embrace the liberation that "Bad Joy" offers without losing all that she holds dear.  Is it ever too late to become who we're meant to be?  

Stars:3 

Book: Ten Nights of Dreams

 Book: Ten Nights of Dreams

Author: Natsume Soseki

Pages: 220

This is my 199th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

This collection of 10 connected stories or dreams has a surrealistic atmosphere.  Some are weird, others are grotesquely funny.  Among the 10 nights, the first, second, third and fifth night start with the same sentence.  "This is the dream I dreamed".  Whether Soseki actually had these dreams or whether they were complete fictions is not known.

Stars: 3