Book: Zero Repeat Forever

 Book: Zero Repeat Forever

Author: GS Prendergast

Pages: 496

This is my 220th read for the year

Amazon says:

He has no voice or name, only a rank, Eighth.  He doesn't know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind.  Dart the humans.  Leave them where they fall.  His job is to protect his OFfside.  Let her do the shooting.  Until a human kills her.  Sixteen year old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade.  Isolated in the wilderness, RAven and her fellow campuers can only stay put.  Await rescue.  Raven doesn't like feeling helpless, but what choice does she have?  Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend.  Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear.  But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other.

This was a pretty good book.  I found it on a search for a book challenge, and was pleasantly surprised with the story.  It is dystopian, so it gets extra points for that being my favorite genre.  But overall the writing was decent.  I liked Eighth a lot.  Raven?  Not so much.  Her charcater was all over the place.  I have a few teenagers and know their can be wild swings of emotion, but this seemed to be written to the extreme.  However - I did start to figure out where the story was going, but wasn't quite sure.  The author wasn't keeping the reader in the dark - it was slowly burning to a big reveal.  Which SORT of came at the end, but I think will be clarified in the second book.  I think I will check it out to see where it goes.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Crossroads

 Book: Crossroads

Author: Laurel Hightower

Pages: 124

This is my 219th read for the year

Amazon says:

How far would you go to bring back someone you love?  When Chris's son dies in a tragic car crash, her world is devastated.  The walls of grief close in on Chris's life until, one day, a small cut on her finger chages everything.  A drop of blood falls from Chris's hand onto her son's roadside memorial and later that night, Chris thinks she sees his ghost outside her window.  Only, it is really her son's ghost, or is it something else - something evil?  Soon Chris is playing a dangerous game with forces beyond her control in a bid to see her son, Trey, alive once again.

This was a strange book.  It is very short and I finished it in one day, but I didn't love it.  It is repetative.  I like the idea of the story - a mom so grieving her son that when she thinks she has a chance to bring him back she will do anything.  But it was a mix of grief and a bit of horror, but it didn't do either well.  Characters were just so so.  The plot never developed.

Stars: 2.5

Book: You Wish

 Book: You Wish

Author: Jason Lethcoe

Pages: 224

This is my 218th read for the year

What Amazon says:

On his eleventh birthday, sad, orphaned Benjamin Bartholomew Piff accidentally adheres to all of the wishing rules, and, in wishing for the mother lode of limitless shes, he unknowingly sets into a motion a chain of events that threatens to disrupt the balance between the magical realm of wishes and curses.  Before long, Benjamin has been recruited by the Wishworks Factory director himself to fight the evil henchmen of the Curseworks Factory.  In the process, Benjamin will reclaim his original wish, giving new credence to the old adage: Be careful what you wish for.

This was a cute book.  I read it for a reading challenge, and feel like these books probably crossed my path when the kids were younger and I have forgotten.  It is a quick read and definitely for the younger crowd, but still well written.  Good development of characters and a good ending.  I think there are more books as the ending lead me to believe.

Stars: 4

Book Garlic and Sapphires

 Book: Garlic and Sapphires

Author: Ruth Reichi

Pages: 352

This is myi 217th read for the year

Amazon says:

Ruth Reichl, world-renowned food critic and former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, knows a thing or two about food.  She also knows that as the most important food critic in the country, you need to be anonymous when reviewing some of the most high-profile establishments in the biggest restaurant town in the world.  A charge she took very seriously, taking on the guise of a series of eccentric personalities.  She reveals the comic absurdity, artifice and excellence to be found in the sumptuously appointed stages of the epicurean world - along with her favorite recipes and reviews.

This book was okay.  I liked the idea of her dressing up as various people to disguise herself at these establishments.  She had been warned that her face was posted at a lot of the elite NY restaurants and knew she was not going to be able to get the full effect and true dining experience of a restaurant if she went as herself.  Her orginal plan was to write two reviews.  One as herself - where she knows she would catered to and one as a disguise persona.  But that was vetoed so she wrote just as the persona.  The side of this book that drug for me was the over explaining in each chapter about the character she was going to portray - setting it up, shopping, getting into character - it was too much.  Also Ruth didn't seem to like anyone.  She had really nothing nice to say about the staff, the food, the other people she encountered.  She seems like someone who is very hard to please even in her everday life.  It got to be a bit much.

Stars: 3

Book: Eyes of the Dragon

 Book: Eyes of the Dragon

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 320

This is my 216th read for the year

This is the story of the kingdom of Delain.  Peter and his brother Thomas grew up without their mother and with a distant father.  When their father dies under mysterious circumstances, Peter is accused of his murder, thrown into jail and his brother crowned King.  Over the next 4 years Peter plans his escape and how to prove he didn't kill his father.

This was a pretty good book.  3/4 of it was well written and the story flowed nicely.  There was good character development.  The last 1/4 of the book drug some.  It seemed to take forever to get through the rescue of Peter - I think that part of the book could have been shortened.  Overall a good story.

Stars: 4

Book: We Have Always Lived In A Castle

 Book: We Have Always Lived In A Castle

Author: Shirley Jackson

Pages: 146

This is my 215th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Since the mysterious death their family, the superstitious Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, her ailing wheelchair-bound uncle, Julian, and agoraphobic sister Constance have lived in a contented state of isolation, secluding themselves from the taunting villagers.  But when cousin Charles arrives in search of the Blackwood fortune, a terrible family secret is revealed.  

This was an okay book.  Not as good as I was hoping.  I read if for a reading challenge.  It was short and uncomplicated and I finished it in a few hours.  Started out okay - but then got sluggish.  It is slow moving with no real buildup - just a lot of bullying.  Ending was disappointing.

Stars: 3

Book: Three Sisters

 Book: Three Sisters

Author: Heather Morris

Pages: 402

This is the 214th read for the year

Amazon says:

Against all odds, three Solvakian sisters have survived years of imprisonment in the most notorious death camp in Nazi Germany: Auschwitz.  Livia, Magda, and Cibi have clung together, nearly died from starvation and overwork, and the brutal whims of the guards in this place of horror.  But now, the allies are closing in and the sisters have one last hurdle to face: the death march from Auschwitz, as the Nazis try to erase any evidence of the prisoners held there.  Due to a last minute stroke of luck, the three of them are able to escape formation and hide in the woods for days before being rescued.  And this is where the story begins.  From there, the three sisters travel to Israel, to their new ome, but the battle for freedom takes on new forms.  Livia, Magda, and Cibi must face the ghosts of their past - and some secrets that they have kept from each other - to find true peace and happiness.

This book was okay.  I really liked her other two books, so I had high hopes for this one.  The first half of the book was good.  It is detailed and hard to read about their time in the camps.  The second half fell flat for me.  It jumps ahead so quickly - marriages, babies, moving.....just seemed almost unrealistic.  It was like she told what she wanted to tell in the first half and then pieced together the second to make the book longer.  It became a chore to finish it.  I lost all interest in what was happening to the sisters by the end of the book and was just glad to be done with it.  It is based on a true story, but how much?  Not sure.

Stars: 3.