Book: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

 Book: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Author: Claire North

Pages: 405

This is my 14th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, every time Harry dies, he always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life lived a dozen times before.  Nothing ever changes - until now.  As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his beside.  "I nearly missed you, Doctor August" she says.  "I need to send a message".  This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

This was a pretty interesting book.  Even though it is a bit on the longer side, it is a quick read.  It gets a little quirkier as it goes along.  I liked the "grounds hog day" take on this story because he lives whole lifetimes.  Not just a day over and over.  The chase to get the guy who was trying to take out all the other travlers got a little odd but it ended well.  Glad I read it. 

Stars: 4

Book: The Last Mrs. Parish

 Book: The Last Mrs. Parish

Author: Liv Constantine

Pages: 400

This is my 13th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Amber Patterson is fed up.  She's tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background.  She deserves more - a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.  To everyoe in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, CT, Daphne - a socialist and philanthropist - and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.  Amber's envy could eat her alive - if she didn't have a plan.  Amber uses Daphne's compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family's life - the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her.  Before long, Amber is Daphne's closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson.  But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.  

This book was terrible.  It is bad writing, bad plot, and just bad all the way around.  I hated all of the characters.  I should have done a DNF - but I kept listening thinking maybe it will come around.  Never did.  By the end of the book I cared about none of it.

Stars: 1

Book: Clytemnestra

 Book: Clytemnestra

Author: Costanza Casati

Pages: 512

This is my 12th read for the year

What Amazon says:

You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant.  You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods.  You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own.  Because this was not the first offense against you.  This was not the life you ever deserved.  And this will not be your undoing.  Slowly, you plot.  But when your husband returns in triump, you become a woman with a choice.  Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both.  So, you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution.  For you understood something long ago that the others never did.  If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.

This book was excellent.  I was captivated from the beginning to the end.  It is very well written and the characters are well developed.  I love how the author took a character from Greek Mythology and made her the main character.  All the women in this book are powerful who still have to deal with powerful men who try to make them less.  I love that Clytemenstra bides her time - using her power as a queen to build trust in her advisors and the people she rules.  Just a great story and I have a feeling this will be one of my favorite books this year.

Stars: 5

Book: Good Girl Bad Blood

 Book: Good Girl Bad Blood

Author: Holly Jackson

Pages: 416

This is my 11th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Pip is not a detective anymore.  With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcase about the murder case they solved together last year.  The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.  But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing.  Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the 6th year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.  The police won't do anything about it.  And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way....and this time everyone is listening.  But will she find him before it's too late?

This was an okay book.  I watched "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" on TV and it was cute, so I decided to try the second book in the series.  It passed the time but that is about it.  I did listen to it, and I have gotten this particular narrator on so many books, and I really don't like her style.  She is a whisper reader.  That might have had a little to do with how I felt about the book, but not much.  It was a bit far fetched.  Pip was an okay character for awhile, but she just fell apart at the end.  I don't think I  will read any more.

Stars: 3

Book: Deadpool Graphic Novel - Book 2

 Book: Deadpool Graphic Novel - Book 2

Author: Daniel Way

Pages: 472

This is my 10th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Deadpool wants to be 2 things in life: a pirate and an X-Man.  So after a stint on the high seas, he decides to make the X-Men love him by assassinating the father of one of their students?  Then 'Pool pays a visit to a certain wisecracking wall-crawler's friendly neighborhood - or is it?  Deadpool doesn't play second banana to anyboyd, especially not Spider-Man!  But Wade had better deal if he wants to survive the threat of Hit-Monkey.  When Dr. Bong clones the Secret Avengers, Deadpool must fight alonside the real deals - and try not to shoot the wrong guys!  Plus: When Wade targets a Vegas club owner, he draws the ire of The House: a super-suited security guard with a secret history with the Merc with a Mouth!  And finally, a bunch of good Draculas hire Deadpool to fight a bunch of bad Draculas.

This was another great graphic novel.  I read the first volume that was lying around our house because Deadpool is my favorite anti-hero.  I like Daniel Way's take on the character so I went on the hunt for the second volume and it was hard to find.  I love the story line and of course Deadpool is hilarious.  Art is fantastic.  I do read a fair number of graphic novels during the year, but I not many Marvel.  But Deadpool is the exception.

Stars: 4

Book: Here One Moment

 Book: Here One Moment

Author: Liane Moriarty

Pages: 512

This is my 9th read for the year

What Amazon says:

The plane is jam-packed.  Every seat is taken.  So of course the flight is delayed.  Flight attendant Allegra Patel likes her job - she's generally happy with her life, even if she can't figure out why she hooks up with a man she barely speaks to - but today is her twenty-eighth birthday.  She can think of plenty of things she'd rather be doing than placating a bunch of grumpy passengers.  There's the well-dressed man in seat 4C who is compulsively checking his watch, desperate not to miss his 11 year old daughter's musical.  Further back, a mother of two is frantically trying to keep her toddler entertained and her infant son quiet.  How did she ever think being a stay-at-home mom would be easier than being a lawyer?  Ethan is lost in thought; he's flying back from his first funeral.  A young couple has just gotten married; she's still wearing her wedding dress.  An emergency room nurse is looking forward to traveling the world once she retires in a few years, it's going to be so much fun!  If they ever get off the tarmac...Suddenly a woman non of them know stands up.  She makes predictions about how and when everyone on board will die.  Some dismiss her.  Others will do everything they can to make sure her prophecies do not come to pass.  All of them will be forever changed.  How would you live your life if you thought you knew how it would end?  Would you love who you love or try ot love someone else?  Would you stay married?  Would you stop drinking?  Would you call up your ex-best friend you haven't spoken to in years?  Would you quit your job?

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it, and I have to say I am glad I did.  I think hearing the different characters voices (and the cool Australian accent) made all the difference.  I streamed through it during a painting project.  There is good character developement and you spend a long time wondering if the predictions are going to come true as you learn more and more about the main characters and the woman who made the predictions.  Loved the epilogue.  I did find it could have been a little bit shorter - there was a lot of detail about the lives of all the characters that added some to the story, but just seemd to be filling pages more than really moving the story along.  Overall - a good read.

Stars: 4

Book: Orbital

 Book: Orbital

Author: Samantha Harvey

Pages: 200

This is my 8th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Orbital snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space.  Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonatus - from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan -have lef ttheir lives behind to travel at the speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below.  We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude.  Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet.  Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprsingly intimate. 

This was a pretty interesting book.  First - the cover is beautiful.  It is a very small book and a very quick read.  I read it in a day.  There is no plot and took me a bit to realize this was going to be the whole book.  It is more of a stream of consciousness about view of the earth from space and what the astronauts saw happening as they circled it again and again.  For a book like that - it could have been even shorted - maybe around 100-150 pages.  After awhile it seemed repetative.  That being said - there were some beautiful sentences and take aways from the book that I am glad I read it.

Stars: 3.5