Book: How to Kill a Guy in 10 Dates

 Book: How to Kill a Guy in 10 Dates

Author: Shaliee Thompson

Pages: 368

This is my 194th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards.  She doesn't expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout.  After the lights come back on, and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dnagerous pastime.  Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie's extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count.  As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl.  But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can't help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with 2 of the other survivors.  Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After?  Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind?

Stars:3 

Book: I See You've Called In Dead

 Book: I See You've Called In Dead

Author: John Kenney

Pages: 320

This is my 193rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn't really living his best life.  He's fallen into a funk after a divorce.  (She left him for another man, who, in fairness,was far more interesting.  He's not doing his job well. He's given up on dating.  And he's about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (thought technically the company can't legally fire a dead person).  As Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to te wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again.

This was a pretty good book.  I liked the main character.  At first I thought it was going to be mostly humor, but in the end it was a feel good story.  Glad I read this one.

Stars: 4.

Book: Is This A Cry For Help

 Book: Is This A Cry For Help

Author: Emily Austin

Pages: 304

This is my 192nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Darcy's life turned out better than she could have ever imagined.  She is a librarian at the local branch, whileher wife Joy runs a book binding service.  Between the 2 of them, there is no more room on their shelves with their ample book collections, various knickknacks and boobles, and dried bouquets. Rounding out thier ideal life is 2 cats and a sun-soaked house by the lake.   But when Darcy receives the news that her ex-boyfriend, Ben, has passed away, she spirals into a pit of guilt and regret, resulting in a mental breakdown and medical leave from the library.  When she returns to work, she is met by unrest in her community and protests surrounding intellectual freedom, resulting in a call for book bans and a second look at the branch's upcoming DEI programs.  Through the support of her community, colleagues, and the personal growth that results from examining her previous relationships, Darcy comes into her own agency and the truest version of herself.  

I almost DNF this book.  I forgot I read this author's other book - Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead.  This book was not good.  And prechy.  Skip.

Stars: 2 

Book: The Nice House On The Lake Deluxe Edition

 Book: The Nice House on the Lake

Author: James Tynion

Pages: 424

This is my 191st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter - well, they know him a little, anyway.  Some met him in chidhood; some met him months ago.  And Walter's always been a little off.  But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter's invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake.  It's beautiful, it's opulent, it's private - so a week of putting up with Walter's weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime?  Why not? All of them were at the moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn't a chance to reconnect be nice?  The overriding anxieties of the 21st century gets a terrifying new face - and it might just be the face of the person you onc etrusted most.

This was a great graphic novel.  It is well written and a well laid out story.  It is an interesting concept for a post apocolytic world.  It does end on a cliff hanger, so I will have to be on the lookout for the next book in the series.  I read the delux edition which was 2 volumes in one.

Stars: 4

Book: Martyr!

 Book: Martyr!

Author: Kaveh Akbar

Pages: 352

This is my 190th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss.  His mother's plane was shot down over the skies of he Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest.  Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past - toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallergy that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

This book was weird.  I wanted to like it - it has been on my list a long time.  But I just could not follow what a lot of people like about this one.  It was disjointed and the "bombshell" of the book just made me mad.

Stars: 3

Book: This Little Life

 Book: A Little Life   

Author: Hanya Yanagihara

Pages: 832

This is my 189th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

This story follows 4 college classmates - broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition as they move to NY in search of fame and fortune.  While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepend over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brillian, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma.  A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the 21st century.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did.  It did start out strong - with the 4 friends and learning about their lives and how they came to be friends.  And then it became a Jude central story and it got tediuous.  It started to feel like a very very long way to the end of this book where we finally got a wrap up of the 4 friends.  So much "I'm sorry" in this book that it drove me crazy.

Stars: 3 

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl #7 - The Inevitable Ruin

 Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl  - The Inevitable Ruin

Author: Matt Dinniman

Pages: 880

This is my 188th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The 9th floor.  Faction Wars.  Nine armies enter, led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy.  The winning team must capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield.  Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, betrayal - it all makes for great fun and even great television.  But thanks to Carl, Donut, and Katia, this season is different.  For the first time ever, the crawlers have their own army.  The NPCs who are normally used as nothing but cannot fodder, have become fully self-aware and have formed an unprecedented team of their own.  And it's not just the crawlers who are at risk this Faction Wars.  Any combatant who dies on the battlefield stays in the ground.  For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher.  No matter who wins the war, only one of them will be allowed to leave this level.  If they all want to survive, they're going to need a little help from a veteran or two.  This is it.  This is what they've been fighting toward.  This is war.

Another terrific installment in the Dungeon Crawler world.  These books are just so fun.  Audiobooks continue to be my favorite way to consume these books.  Laugh out loud funny in so many places and well as clever writing, great story telling and world building.  There is one more book currently out and I am going to be so sad waiting for the next one!  These books are not to be missed.

Stars: 5