Book: Deperation

 Book: Deperation

Author: Stephen King

Pages: 624

This is my 17th read for the year

What Amazon says:

For all intents and purposes police officer Collie Entragian, chief law enforcement for the small mining town for Desperation, Nevada, appears to be completely insane.  He's taken to stopping vehicles along the desolate Interstate 50 and abducting unwary travelers with various unusual ploys. There's something very wrong here in Desperation - and Officer Entragian is only at the surface of it.  The secrets embedded in Depseration's landscape, and the horrifying evil that infects the town like some viral hot zone, are both aweome and terrifying.  But one of Entragian's victims, young David Carver, seems to know - and it scares him nearly to death to realize this truth - that the forces being summoned to combat this frightful, maniacal aberration are of equal and opposite intensity.

This was an okay book.  I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.  Writing was fine and the story was interesting.  I think it was just too long.  It was just too wordy and I found myself wishing King would just get on with it a little more often than I wanted to.  Creepy?  Yes.  Just not one of his best in my opinion.

Stars: 3 

Book: The Story of a Heart

 Book: The Story of a Heart

Author: Rachel Clarke

Pages: 256

This is my 16th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children - one of whom desperately needs a new heart.  One summer day, 9 year old Kiera Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries.  As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat.  In an act of extraordinary generosity, Kiera's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.  Meanwhile 9 year old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, fighting the virus that was causing his heart to fail.  When Max's parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family.  The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle.  While waiting for transplant, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation.  This is the story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift.  Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira's heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible stretching back over a cenury.

This was a great book.  The author does a fantastic job of weaving the personal stories of Max and Kiera and what their families went through with the history of organ transplantation (and other life saving procedures).  It is wonderfully written and lays out how deeply hard it is for families in these situations as well as the people who care for them.  I am really glad I read this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Bury Your Gays

 Book: Bury Your Gays

Author: Chuck Tingle

Pages: 304

This is my 15th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.  But finally, after years of tryingto make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination.  And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his areer to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm", in the upcoming season finale.  Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he's just put a target on his back.  And what's worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.  Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future - before the horros from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.

This was an interesting book.  I liked the plot and thought the story flowed well for the most part.  I did lose a little interest nearing the end - felt it was stretching the story to add more pages when he could have been wrapped up sooner.  However - I liked the characters and was interested in seeing where the story was going.  In the end, it did come together, and I am glad I read it.

Stars: 4

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