Book: James

 Book: James

Author: Percival Everett

Pages: 303

This is my 1st book for the new year

Last year I started to copy the summaries from Amazon because I read so much and it just is a step I don't always want to take to do myself.  I am going to continue that this year.

What Amazon says:

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan.  Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own deather to escape his violent father, recently returned to town.  As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.  

I thought this was a great book.  I read it over the course of 2 days because I found it an interesting and easy read.  I liked that James was basically two people - a person who whites thought was an uneducated slave and the one where he speaks intelligently and knowledgable.  It allowed me to give good thought to how it might have been for a lot of slaves of this time period.  I thought the writing was good and James a very likable character.  Two parts brought my review down a star and that was 1) where James is in an accident where a furnace explodes while he is in the room and he is barely injured while others were killed.  2) The ending wrapped up way too quickly.  I would have liked more.  Overall - so glad I read it to start 2025.

Stars: 4

Book: Moneychanger

 Book: Moneychanger

Author: Arthur Hailey

Pages: 400

This is my 250th book for the year

What Amazon says:

Ben Roselli, president of First Mercantile American Bank and grandson of the founder, makes the shocking announcement that he's dying.  With no offspring to inherit the company, Roselli knows that executive VPs Roscoe Heyward and Alex Vandervoort are the obvious candidates to succeed him.  Heyward, who has been with First Mercantile for 2 decades, will do whatever it takes to bring in new clients and win the coveted presidency.  Vandervoort, a newcomer from the Federal Reserve with a left-wing girlfriend, advocates for a socially responsible plan of growth.  And now the discovery of counterfeit case and credit card fraud threatens the future of the bank itself.  

This was a decent book.  Mat got it for me for Christmas because it was the 2nd most popular book in 1975 (the year I was born.  Last year he got me the most popular).  The writing was decent and the story intriguing.  It held my interest.  I would say the negative was that over explaining that occured in the book.  The writer over explained things that weren't that complicated and it made those sections skipable.  Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

Stars: 3

Book: Klaus (Graphic Novel)

 Book: Klaus (Graphic Novel)

Author: Grant Morrison

Pages: 202

This is my 249th read for the year

This is a fantastic adaptation of the Santa Claus tale. It is a story of how Klaus becomes Santa Claus but told in a story that is more for middle grade and above.  It is artistic and well written and I enjoyed this quick read.

Stars: 4

Book: Brick by Brick

 Book: Brick By Brick

Author: David Roberston

Pages: 336

This is my 248th of the year

What Amazon says:

As LEGO failed to keep pace with the revolutionary changes in kids' lives and began sliding into irrelevance, the company's leaders implemented some of the business world's most widely espoused prescriptions for boosting innovation.  Ironically, these changes pushed the iconic toymaker to the bring of bankruptcy, showing that what works in theory can fail spectacularly in the brutally competitive global economy.  It took a new LEGO management team - faced with the growing rage for electronic toys, few barrier to entry, and ultra-demanding consumers (10 year old boys) to reinvent the innovation rule book and transform LEGO into one of the word's most profitable, fastest-growing companies.

This was a very interesting book.  It starts with the beginning of lego and how its business model changed as their original buyers changed and also as electronics started to take the place of general play.  They are an exceptional company that tries to stay true to their original motto to help children create and explore.  The book is well researched and well written and it held my interest from begininng to end. We actually visited the original Legoland in Denmark for Cainan's birthday when we lived in Europe and it is an incredible place.  

Stars: 4

Book: The Invisible Man

 Book: The Invisible Man

Author: HG Wells

Pages: 167

This is my 247th read for the year

What Amazon says:

A curious man, wearing a long coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and whose face is entirely swathed in bandages save for an obvious fake pink nose, walks into an English inn to the shock and horror of many of the townspeople.  Beakers and chemicals in tow, the man demands his solitude.  It's strange enough as it is until his money begins to run out and mysterious burglaries occur all over town.  This tale chronicles the antagonistic interaction between the citizens of a small town and a man who had discovered how to turn himself invible.

This was a pretty good book.  It has been on my shelf forever and I kept passing it up.  I listened to it while doing a big project today and it was a quick and easy listen.  I liked the story and there is good character development even in these short pages.  HG is a good writer and I am glad I finally got around to this one.

Stars: 4

Book: Gwendy's Final Task

 Book: Gwendy's Final Task

Author: Stephn King and Richard Chizmar

Pages: 412

This is my 246th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

When Gwendy Peterson was 12, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping.  It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous.  Pushing any of its seven colors buttonspromised deather and destruction.  Years later, the botton box entered Gwendy's life again.  A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented.  Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them.  At all costs.  But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?  In this final installment we go from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Main city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world.

I liked this book.  It was a good wrap up to the triology.  Gwendy remains a likable character.  The story flowed pretty well and the characters are well developed as in the other two.  I listened to this one and couldn't quite get into it like the others.  This one was written in the heat of the pandemic when tensions were high and King started to get more political in his books.  While he and I align in feelings, I do wish he would leave it out of his books.  Or at least make it less a part of his stories.  It did make me like this book a litlte less because it distracted too much from the main story and wrapping up Gwendy's mission.  However, I am glad I read it and finished the series.

Stars: 3

Book: Gwendy's Magic Feather

 Book: Gwendy's Magic Feather

Author: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

Pages: 333

This is my 245th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Something evil has swept into the small western Maine town of Castle Rock on the heels of the latest winter storm.  Sheriff Norris Ridgewick and his team are desperarly searching for two missing girls, but time is running out to bring them home alive.  In Washington DC, 37 year old Gwendy Peterson couldn't be more different from the self-conscious teenaged girl who once spent a summer running up Castle Rock's Suicide Stairs.  That same summer, she was entrusted or some might say cursed with the extraordinary button box by Richard Farris, the mysterious stranger in the black suit.  The seductive and powerful box offered Gwendy small gifts in exchange for its care and feeding until Farris eventually returned, promising Gwendy she'd never see the box again.  One day the botton box shows up without warning and without Richard Farris to explain why, or what she's supposed to do with it.  The mysterious reappearance of the box, along with the troubling disappearance in Castle Rock, leads Gwendy home again - where she just might be able to help rescue the missing girls and stop a madman before he does something ghastly.  

This was another good novel in the Gwendy Trilogy.  I liked it just as much as the first.  There is good character developement and the story flows nicely.  This was another quick read.  Gwendy has jumped forward in time and is now a Senator.  She is married ad has come back into town around Christmas to visit her parents while her husband is away on business. Gwendy continues to be a very likable character.

Stars: 4