Book: Preventable

 Book: Preventable

Author: Andy Slavitt

Pages: 336

This is my 47th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

From former Biden Senior Advisro Andy Slavitt, Prevenable is the definitive inside account of the United States' failed response to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Slavitt chronicles what he saw and how much could have been prevented - an unflinching investigation of the cultural, political, and economic drivers that led to unnecessary loss of life.  With unparalleled access to the key players throughout the government on both sides of the aisle, the principal public figures, as well as the people working on the frontline involved in fighting the virus, Slavitt brings you into the room as fateful decisions are made and focuses on the people at the center of the political system, health care system, patients, and caregivers.  The story that emerges is one of a country in whice - despite the heroics of many - bad leadership, political and cultural fractures, and an unwillingness to sustain sacrifice light a fuse that is difficult to extinguish.  This book addresses the uncomfortable realities that brought America to this place.  And, he puts forth te solutions that will prevent us from being here again, ensuring a better, strong country for everyone.

This was a great book - as great as you can rate a book that is about a very tough subject.  It was hard to relive what it was like for Americans during the height of the Coronavirus, and the consequences of so many things that we wish had gone differently.  I was lucky that I road a large chunk of the beginning of the virus out in Switzerland where we were living at the time.  The response there was vastly different and my kids actually got to go back to school about 8 weeks after the virus hit.  Everything reopened.  Citizens took care of each other. Followed rules that were not only good for them, but for everyone around them.  This book gave me even more information because Slavitt was an insider.  He was part of the day to day decisions - bridging the gap between the outside world and a White House that was less than cooperative.  I only knocked it a star because no one is perfect.  Everyone had a part in the blame, and I think Slevitt should made that more clear.

Stars: 4

Book: Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

 Book: Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time

Author: Angela Brown

Pages: 325

This is my 46th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Olivia Strauss is turning 39.  No major milestone.  She still considers herself young.  At least young enough to assume she has decasdes (emphasis on the plural) to check the unchecked boxes of her life's to-do list.  Ballerina?  Too late.  But not too late for poet.  Or for reigniting the romantic spark in her marriage, spending more quality time with her son, switching careers, learing to cook, or even dyeing her hair a bright bohemian pink. She'll get to that one.  There's time - until Olivia's best friend, Marian, gives her a birthday present she could have lived without.  It's a visit to a trendy wellness clinicl with a state-of-the-art genetic test that can predict the exact date of one's death.  It's just what Olivia's always wanted: an expiration date.  As for her aspirations, who knew they were limited-time offers?  One thing's for sure.  Olivia's got a lot of living to do.  At this point, what could go wrong?

This book wasn't that great.  I got it as a Prime First Reads - liking the idea of a clinic that could guess your time of death and seeing where it was going.  But what I got was a self absorbed main character that could not be more out of touch with the people around her.  Lots of me, me, me.  It is overly flowery, and it didn't flow well - very choppy.  I had a hard time keeping track of all the side characters.  I would pass on this one.

Stars: 2

Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

 Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Author: Agatha Christie

Pages: 226

This is my 45th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend, Roger Ackroyd, to pursue a project to perfect vegetable marrows.  Soon after, Ackroyd is murdered and Poirot must come out of retirement to solve the case.  The novel was well-received and was voted by the British Crime Writers' Association as the best crime novel ever.  Its innovative twist endinghad a significant impact on the genre.  

This was a good book.  I listened to it and it is very short, but I found this a good way to take this book on.  I like Poirot the character.  He does come in later than normal in the story, and for awhile I was worried I had picked up a non-Poirot book.  There is good suspense and good mystery, and the ending wraps up nicely.

Stars: 4

Book: Ushers

 Book: Ushers

Author: Joe Hill

Pages: 29

This is my 44th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Martin Lorensen is a 23 year old counselor for disturbed teenagers.  He's bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing.  He's also - and this is the most interesting thing - not dead.  Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disasters that claimed dozens of lives.  The kid is riding one heck of a lucky streak.  Two federal agents thing there is something darker at play.  Now that they've arranged to interview Martin, they want answers.  Martin is ready to share everything he knows.  One thing is for certain: when it comes to escaping death, luck doesn't figure into it at all.

This was a great short story.  I got it from a Prime First Reads and was excited to see Joe Hill listed among the choices.  It is a packed story even for its size, and I read it quickly enjoying every page.  Would I have liked more?  Of course.  But I know short stories are hard to pull off, and they are not my favorite, but this was a good one.  Good character developement, interesting plot, and a satisfactory ending.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Bookshop

 Book: The Bookshop

Author: Evan Friss

Pages: 416

This is my 43rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics.  They nurture local communities whilecreating new ones of their own.  Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones.  We see the stakes: wat has been, and what might be lost.  Evan friss's history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews, with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many.  The story begins with Benjamin Franklin's first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago's Marshall Field and Co, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes and Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus.  The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentics, and a history of how books have been merketed and sold over the couse of more than 2 centuries - including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field's in 1944.  This book is a love letter to bookstores, a Charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American Life - and why we still need them.

This was a fantastic read.  The history of all these different bookstores was fascinating.  The writing is superb - as well as the research done on the history and the people behind the bookstores.  From small shops around the time of Ben Franklin to Amazon today - he covers a wide history of what bookstores were and what they have become.  A lot of great anecdotes and personal touches, I am glad I found this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Cold Falling White

 Book: Cold Falling White

Author: G. S. Prendergrast

Pages: 576

This is my 42nd read for the year

What Amazon says:

Xander Liu survived the alien invasion - just barely.  For more than a year, he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless intruders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many.  When the murder of his friend leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territor and relative safety.  But safety among the humans is not what it seems.  When Raven awakes on a wide expanse of snowy sand dunes, she has many questions.  What has happened to her and the other reanimated humans gathered around her?  What is the meaning of the Nahx ships that hover ominously above them?  And most pressing of all, where is August, who promised to keep her safe?  In the shadow of n unforgiving Canadian winter, Xander and Raven find themselves on opposite sides of an alien war.  Left with little choice about their roles in the looming battle, they search for answers and allies all while being drawn back to the place where their respective fates were determined, and to the one who determined them: August.

This book was pretty good.  I read the first one, so I wanted to do what I usually do - continue a series no matter how I felt about the first book. The story is interesting enough.  The writing is decent.  The story flows well.  It took me a bit to get into, but I didn't read the first one that far in the past, so soon I was back on track with the characters.  This one has a new main character, but Raven does make an appearance quickly and is back to being a main POV.  Got a little more insight into the invasion and who the Nahx are.  I think there is going to be a third one so I will that if it becomes so.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Girl Factory

 Book: Girl Factory

Author: Karen Dietrich

Pages: 272

This is my 41st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

It's 1985 in a small factory town near Pittsburgh.  8 year old Karen's parents are lifelong workers at the Anchor Glass plant, where one Saturday, an employee goes on a shotting spree, killing four supervisors, them himself.  This event splits the young girl's life open, and like her mother, she begins to seek comfort in obsessive rituals and superstitions.  This memori chronicles the next 14 years as Karen moves through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.  It illuminates small-town factory life; explores a complicated mother-daughter bone; thoughtfully unfolds a smart, but insecure girl's coming of age; achingly recounts her attempts to use sex to fit in; and ultimately uncovers the buried secret from her childhood - a medical file with an unbearable report.  The book travels the intersections of memory and origin.  Karen'ts body remembers details her mind has tried to control.

I want to start this review with saying that I knew this author through my childhood..  I grew up with her and her older sister - she went to my same small elementary school, junior and senior high schoool, and was a good friend of my brother.  She changed the names of just about everyone but herself, but I knew the people she spoke of.  The teachers she mentions were ones I had an loved as well and was happy to see their names.  But Karen'ts childhood was a termoil one.  This book is not badly written, but it is choppy.  There are a lot of uncomfortable parts - for me - that were heavy on sex.  She did not have much good to say about her mother and the story was quite sad.  I picked up the book because in 1985 when the book takes place was the year our town had its one and only mass shooting where a gunman shot 4 people at Anchor Hocking Glass and then himself.  We knew one of the people very well - he has a good friend of our family.  I thought it was going to circle around that more because her parents worked there, but it was just a small part.  I am glad I read it, but I would not recommend it.

Stars: 3