Book: Gwendy's Final Task

 Book: Gwendy's Final Task

Author: Stephn King and Richard Chizmar

Pages: 412

This is my 246th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

When Gwendy Peterson was 12, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping.  It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous.  Pushing any of its seven colors buttonspromised deather and destruction.  Years later, the botton box entered Gwendy's life again.  A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented.  Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them.  At all costs.  But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?  In this final installment we go from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Main city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world.

I liked this book.  It was a good wrap up to the triology.  Gwendy remains a likable character.  The story flowed pretty well and the characters are well developed as in the other two.  I listened to this one and couldn't quite get into it like the others.  This one was written in the heat of the pandemic when tensions were high and King started to get more political in his books.  While he and I align in feelings, I do wish he would leave it out of his books.  Or at least make it less a part of his stories.  It did make me like this book a litlte less because it distracted too much from the main story and wrapping up Gwendy's mission.  However, I am glad I read it and finished the series.

Stars: 3

Book: Gwendy's Magic Feather

 Book: Gwendy's Magic Feather

Author: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

Pages: 333

This is my 245th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Something evil has swept into the small western Maine town of Castle Rock on the heels of the latest winter storm.  Sheriff Norris Ridgewick and his team are desperarly searching for two missing girls, but time is running out to bring them home alive.  In Washington DC, 37 year old Gwendy Peterson couldn't be more different from the self-conscious teenaged girl who once spent a summer running up Castle Rock's Suicide Stairs.  That same summer, she was entrusted or some might say cursed with the extraordinary button box by Richard Farris, the mysterious stranger in the black suit.  The seductive and powerful box offered Gwendy small gifts in exchange for its care and feeding until Farris eventually returned, promising Gwendy she'd never see the box again.  One day the botton box shows up without warning and without Richard Farris to explain why, or what she's supposed to do with it.  The mysterious reappearance of the box, along with the troubling disappearance in Castle Rock, leads Gwendy home again - where she just might be able to help rescue the missing girls and stop a madman before he does something ghastly.  

This was another good novel in the Gwendy Trilogy.  I liked it just as much as the fit.  There is good character developement and the story flows nicely.  This was another quick read.  Gwendy has jumped forward in time and is now a Senator.  She is married ad has come back into town around Christmas to visit her parents while her husband is away on business. Gwendy continues to be a very likable character.

Stars: 4

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