Book: Gwendy's Button Box

 Book: Gwendy's Button Box

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 170

This is the 244th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one sotry that has never been told - until now.  There are three ways up to Caste View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Rd, and the Suicide Stairs.  Every day in the summer of 1974, 12 year old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside.  At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground.  From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labor Day charity game.  One day, a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey girl.  Come on over here for a bit.  We ought to palaver, you and me"  On a bench in the shade sits a man in black jeans, black coat, and a white shirt.  On his head is a small black hat.  The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat.

This was a really good book.  It is very short and I listened to it while working around the house in a few short hours.  The story is engaging and easy to follow.  I liked Gwendy.  The mysterious man

(yet another King bad guy with the initials "RF") gives Gwendy this box that gives her a lot of luck and a few powers and Gwendy starts to use the box less and less feeling that she doesn't need it to be happy.  I was curious about where it was going.  This is the first book in a trilogy, so of course it ended on a cliff hanger.  Looking forward to checking out the next two.

Stars: 4

Book: All The Colors of the Dark

Book: All The Colors of the Dark

Author: Chris Whitaker

Pages: 608

This is my 243rd read for the year

What Amazon says:

1975 is a time of change in America.  The Wietnam War is ending.  Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier.  And in a small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.  When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges - Patch, a local boy, who save the girl, and in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.  Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer.  And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another. 

This was an incredible book.  I had been putting it off because it has been hyped pretty much everywhere and usually those books turn out to be something I don't like.  But not this time.  I found it available at my library and decided to give it a try and glad I did.  It had me hooked right from the begining.  The little mysteries in several chapters to force you to keep turning, keep looking for where the story was going, will propell you through the pages.  This is a monstorous book.  But it doesn't feel like it with the writing style and short chapters.  It covers a large amount of years of the main characters (Patch and Saint) and how they keep finding each other even as their lives take different paths.  I do love long timeline books, so that was a win.  The language is flowery, but it doesn't distract from the story.  Characters are well developed.  Good ending.  Glad I gave in and read this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Triptych a Will Trent Novel

 Book: Triptych a Will Trent Novel

Author: Karen Slaughter

Pages: 480

This is my 242nd read for the year

What Amazon says:

From Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race.  And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too.  Among them is Michael Ornewood, a veteran detective whose marraige is hanging by a thread - and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career.  And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.  But unbeknownst to both of them, another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer's trail in the most coincidental of ways - and who may be the key to breaking the key to breaking the case wide open.

This was an interesting enough book.  I watch the Will Trent series on TV, so when I learned it was from a book, I looked it up.  This is the first in the series, and it was fine.  I found a lot of similarities to the show, except the Michael carracter.  The TV show went a very different way with him.  The book spends a lot of time with the ex-con and at first I didn't know where she was going with so much story where he was the main focus, but then it made sense.  Will isn't in this book as much as I would have expected since he is supposed to be a main character.  Overall, though, a good read.

Stars: 3

Book: The Caligrapher's Daughter

 Book: The Caligrapher's Daughter

Author: Eugenia Kim

Pages: 396

This is my 241st read for the year

What Amazon says:

In early 20th century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own desitny.  But her country is in tumult under Japan's harsh occupation, and her family's traditions, entitlements, and wealth crumble.  Narrowly escaping an arranged marriage, Najin becomes a companion to a young princess, until Korea's last king is assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to its end.  Najin pursues a coveted education and is surprised to find love.  After one day of marriage, a denied passport separates her from her new husband, who journeys alone to America.  As a decade passes and the world descends into war, Najin loses touch with her husband.  Will the love they share be enough to sustain her through the deprivation her country continues to endure?

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it and the narrator was a good one.  The story flowed nicely from when Najin was a little girl all the way into her adulthood.  The main characters are well developed.  I enjoy a story that follows one person through most of their life to see how they evolve and change with the times.  I will say I found it a bit unrealistic that she being separated from her husband for 10 plus years would lead to them having a quick reunion and fall right back into a routine of being together.  But overall - a good tale.

Stars: 4

Book:A Month of Sundays

 Book: A Month of Sundays

Author: Julie Mars

Pages: 208

This is my 240th read for the year

What Amazon says:

This book is about the seven months that the author spent as her dying sister's primary caretaker, and after her sister died, the 31 houses of worship that she visited in 31 weeks in her hope of finding an outlet of her grief and getting some answers to spiritual questions.  Her houses of worship include traditional churches, mosques, temples, Buddhist, Zen, Spirtualist, Scientology, Salvation Army and so forth.

This was a pretty good book.  I found this by accident and I am glad I did.  I think it is well written, and I loved how the author weaved her visits to different houses of worship with the story of her sister.  She and her sister were very far apart in age - her sister being more of a parent figure than a sibling.  The author always looked up to her sister so when she is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given just a few months to live, Julie drops everything to care for her.  After her sister dies, Julie looks for her and looks for closure as she tries to find the faith that her sister had at the end of her life.  Good book.

Stars: 4

Book: Black House

 Book: Black House

Author: Stephen King and Peter Straub

Pages: 672

This is my 239th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

20 years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories" Twinner" from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world.  Now Jack is retired LA homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin.  He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories, and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awake those memories.  When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades ago by a madman named Albert fish, the killer is dubbed "the Fishman" and Jack's buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find him.  But are these new kilings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town?  What causes Jack's inexplicable waking dreams of robin's eggs and red feathers?  It's almost as if someone is trying to tell him something.  As this cryptic message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest, there to encoutner the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.

This books was fine.  It is the second book (and last) in the Talisman duology.  I listened to it and it passed the time, but I did forget that it was the second book in the Talisman which I really didn't like.  I got through it, but it was a bit of a trudge.  I do like the narrator he chose for this series - that helped.  The Black House is actually a very small part of this book - it was very confusing.  It is a bit rambly and I had a hard time caring about the characters.  I have found that books that have more than one author don't work for me.  

Stras: 3

Book: Flatlands

 Book: Flatlands

Author: Sue Hubbard

Pages: 272

This is my 238th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Freda is a 12 year old evacuee from East London, who has been sent away at the start of the war, leaving behind everything familiar to her, to escape the expected German bombing.  In her new temporary home in Lincolnshire, Freda finds herself billeted with a strange, cold and ultimately abusive couple, whose lives mirror the barren landscape in which they live a hand to mouth existence, based upon subsistence farming and poaching.  There, deprived of any warmth, she meets a young man - Philip Rhayader - a conscientious objector who has left Oxford and his prospective vcation in the church following a nervous breakdown.  Together they explore the wild, beautiful landscape of the Wash, teeming with migrating birds, and nurse an injured goose back to health.  As they do so, Philip introduces Freda to the wonders of the natural world and its enduring power to heal.

This was a pretty good book.  It was an easy read and flowed well.  Freda and Philip are very likable characters.  The book is written as a journal that Freda is writing as an old woman accounting for her time during the war.  The situation with Freda and her time with her billeted family is hard to read.  

Stars: 4