Book: The Traveling Cat Chronicles

 Book: The Traveling Cat Chronicles

Author: Hiro Arikawa

Pages: 288

This is my 30th read for the year

What Amazon says:

With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends.  Or so Nana is led to believe.  With his crooked tail - a sign of good fortune - and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray.  And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude of loyalty and love.

This was a great little book.  It is a fast read - the book is very short in stature so 288 pages flew by.  The story is sweet with the cat and Satoru - traveling to find the cat a new home.  It is pretty obvious from the beginning why the search, but it isn't until near the end when it is revealed.  It is well written an the characters are great.  Glad I read it.

Stars: 4

Book: History of the Nashobah Praying Indians

 Book: History of the Nashobah Praying Indians

Author: Daniel Boudillion

Pages: 192

This is my 29th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Littleton, Massachusetts was originally the Praying Indian Plantation of Nashobah.  Prior to 1654 it was the Native village of Nashope under Chief Tahattawan, a Massachusett Federation Sagamore.  For the first time ever, the history of the Nashobah Praying Indians is told here in full, from 1654 to 1736.  It is a story of suffering and loss, of a people who kept both their faith and heritage in the face of encroachment, war, and disease.  The book begins at the roots of the Praying Indian experiment, follows the doing and sifferings through King Phillip's war and Deer Island, and the long decline afterwards as the Plantation was sold off bit by bit, eventually to become the town of Littleton.  It has been more than 280 years since Wunnuhhew (Sarah Doublet), the last of the Nashobah Praying Indians that lived in Nashobah, passed away, and the Plantation was lost.  Here her story, and the story of all the Nashobah Praying Indians told in full for the first time.  The Nashobah Praying Indians are alive and well in the world, and are still Praying Indians more than 350 years later.  This is their story.

This was a pretty good book.  I am a little biased because I live in Littleton and walk the Sarah Doublet forest often.  I knew a little of the history, but this book is so much more.  We get a good indepth history of the land, the people, and Sarah herself.  I learned so much that as soon as our weather turns for the better, I want to seek out some of these spots, and rewalk the forest with a different view.  He did an excellent job with the writing and the history.  Glad I found this one.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

 Book: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

Author: Garth Nix

Pages: 432

This is my 28th read for the year

What Amazon says:

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met.  Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outragiously attractive Merlin.  Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.  Susan's search for her father begins with her mother's possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.   Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother.  As he and his siter, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police invetigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's.  Who or what was her father?  Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts danergously into the New.

This book was just okay.  I picked it to fit into a challenge category where a character had to be left handed.  Being left-handed myself, I thought this would be a fun one.  But this book wasn't entertaining.  The character development is just so-so, and the story dragged.  I am glad to be done with it.  I loved the idea of it, but it just fell flat for me

Stars: 3

Book: Half Way Home

 Book: Half Way Home

Author: Hugh Howey

Pages: 242

This is my 27th read for the year

Amazon says:

We woke in fire.  500 colonists have been sent across the stars to settle an alien planet.  Vat-grown in a dream-like state, they are educated through simulations by an artificial intelligence and should awaken at 30 years old, fully trained, and ready to tame the new world.  But 15 years into their journey, an explosion on their vessel kills most of the homesteaders and destroys the majority of their supplies.  Worse yet, the 60 that awaken and escape the flames are only half-taught and possess few useful survival skills.  Naked and terrified, the teens stumble from their fiery baptism ill-prepared for the unfamiliar and harsh alien world around them.  Though they attempt to work with the colony AI to build a home, dissension and misery are rampant, escalating into battles for dominance.  Soon they find that their worst enemoy isn't the hostile envoronment, the AI or the blast that nearly killed them.  Their greatest danger is each other.

I was originally excited to find this book at a used book store because I loved the Silo series by this author.  I read the back cover and it sounded right up my ally (dystopain, new world finding) but I should have paid better attention to the fact that all the characters were 15 years old.  This wasn't well written - even for a YA book.  It was childish and unbelievable.  Main character is very weak to the point of silly.  I did look this up and it was one of his earlier books, so maybe that was the problem?  It didn't seem like the same author from the Silo series.

Stars: 2

Book: Little Mushroom: Judgement Day

 Book: Little Mushroom: Judgement Day

Author: Shisi

Pages: 404

This is my 26th read for the year

What Amazon says:

"Until the day humanity falls".  In the year 2020, Earth's magnetic poles disappeared and humankind was nearly wiped out by cosmic radiation.  Within the span of a hundred years, living creatures began to mutate and devour each other while the remaining humans, numbering in the tens of thousands, struggled bitterly in their man-made bases.  In the Abyss, home to the mutated xenogenics, there lived a sentient little mushroom.  Because it had been nourished by the blood and flesh of the decreased human An Ze, not only did it take on a similar-looking human form, but a similar name as well: An Zhe.  An Zhe is determined to go to the human base to search for his spore, which had been harvested by humans.  Once there, however, he faces the omnipresent risk of discovery and certain death as he tries to keep his non-human nature hidden from the Judges, whose responsibility is to inspect for an eliminate xenogenics like himself.  And of all the Judes, Colonel Lu Feng is the most perceptive and merciless - as soon as he determines that someone is a xenogenic, he will execute that person on the spot.  But An Zhe's mutation goes undetected by Lu Feng's eyes, and so a tale of humans and xenogenics unfolds.  

This was an interesting book.  I read it for a reading challenge and it was recommended by my 22 year old daughter, so it was not something I would normally read.  But it was well translated and an interesting dystopian story.  It is imaginative and I liked how they explained how the world became the way it was.

Stars: 4.

Book: How To American

 Book: How To American

Author: Jimmy O Yang

Pages: 240

This is my 25th read for the year

What Amazon says:

"I turned down  job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy.  My dad thought I was crazy.  But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life.  I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved.  That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too".  Jimmy Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from Silicon Valley.  In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents:  Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET Rap City for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career.  He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip to Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen 10 years later.  

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it and the author reads it which made the book I believe.  His story begins in Hong Kong to his immigration to the US at age 13, to 2018 when the book was written.  He does a deep dive into what made his decisions, the poor and good choices he has made, and how his parents view his choices.  It has laugh out loud moments that were probably made better with the audio verison.  Good book - glad I listened to it.

Stars: 4

Book: The Illiad Graphic Novel

 Book: The illiad Graphic Novel

Author: Gareth Hinds

Pages: 272

This is my 24th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

More than three thousand years ago, two armies faced each other in an epic battle that rewrote history and came to be knkown as the Trojan War.  The Illiad, Homer's legendary account of this 9 year ordeal, is considered the greatest war story of all time and one of the most important works of Western literature.  In this stunning graphic novel adaptation - a thoroughly researched and artfully rendered masterowkr - renowned illustrator Gareth Hinds captures all the grim glory of Homer's epic.  Dynami illustrations take readers directly to the plains of Troy, into the battle itself, and lay bare the complex emotions of the men, women, and gods whose struggles fueled the war and determined its outcome.

After reading Clytemnestra earlier this month, I wanted to read the Illiad and Odessy in hopes that she might be mentioned in the story.  I did decide to start with the graphic novel for this daunting novel series, just to get a taste until I have more time.  Sadly in the graphic novel, she is not mentioned, but I did enjoy the story.  Artwork was okay. 

Stars: 4