Book: Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark

 Book: Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark

Author: 

Pages:

This is my 223rd read for the year

This is a collection of short stories for grades 3-7.  The stories are short and of course, not scary for an adult, but I enjoyed the book all the same.  I heard a few that I heard as a child myself which was neat.  I read it for a reading challenge, and it was a quick read that I read in an afternoon.

Stars: 4

The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel

 The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel

Author:

Pages:

This is my 222nd read for the year

Amazon says:

Meet Thursday Next, "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew, and part Dirty Harry", a literary detective without equal, fear, or boyfriend - and welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality, and literature is taken very, very seriously.  England is a virtual polic state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wadsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense.  All this is business as usual for Thursday, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature.  When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Bronte's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter a novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.

This was a very intersting book.  It is not an easy read.  If you can buckle down and focus, it is a fun book.  There is humor in between the chase with a lot of funny named characters (Thursday Next is our main character) thrown in the mix.  This is a world where a criminal master mind that hold a world hostage through literature.  It is a very interesting read and while I don't think I will be continuing the series at this time due to the task it is to read it, I am glad I tried this one.

Stars: 4

Book: Revival

 Book: Revival

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 

This is my 221st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers.  Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister.  Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church.  The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs - including Jamie's mother and beloed sister, Claire.  With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession.  When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and us banished from the shocked town.  Jamie has demons of his own.  Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock an roll while fleeing from his family's horrific loss.  In his mid-thirties - addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate - Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with proound consequences for both men.  Thier  bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie dscovers that rivival has many meanings.

This book was okay.  I had a really hard time getting into it and staying interested in where the story was going.  It felt disconncted and it rambled.  It has a slow and steady start but the climax and ending fell flat for me.  The whole build up of the book was less than 20 pages in the end and I was left wanting more.

Stars: 2.5

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