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 

Book: Lucifer's Hammer

 Book: Lucifer's Hammer

Author: Larry Niven

Pages: 640

This is my 187th read for the year

What Amazon says:

The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high.  Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam.  It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization.  But for the terrified men and women chance have saved, it was also the danw of a new struggle for survival - a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.

This was an interesting book.  It was really long, and honestly - it didn't really merit that in my opionion.  It got a bit tedious after awhile and I had a hard time picking it back up to read.  But overall, an interesting story.

Stars: 3.5 

Book: The Summer Guest

 Book: The Summer Guest

Author: Justin Cronin

Pages: 369

This is my 186th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

On an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwrigth, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine.  He comes bearing 2 things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for 30 years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him.  From the battle fields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battlse of love and family, this story reveals the full history of this final pilgrimage and its meaning for 4 people: Jordan Patterson, the haunted youg man who will guide Harry on his last voyage out; the camp's owner Joe Crosby, a Vietnam draft evader ho has spent a lifetime "trying to learn what it means to be brave", Joe's wife, Lucy, the woman Harry has loved for 3 decades; and Joe and Lucy's daughter Kate - the spirited you woman who holds the key to the last unopened door to the past.  As their stories unfold, secrets are revealed, courage is tested, and the bonds of love are strengthened.  And always center stage is the place itself - a magical, forgotten corner of New England where the longings of the human heart are mirrored in the wild beauty of the landscape.

Stars: 4 

Book: Before and After

 Book: Before and After

Author: Andrew Shanahan

Pages: 245

This is my 186th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Ben Stone is terrified.  He's terrified because he weights 601 pounds and needs hisright leg amputated.  He's terrified because a crane will shortly life him from his 4th floor flat and lower him 44 feet to an ambulance waiting below.  He's terrified because he hasn't been outside in 9 years and he doesn't know who will look after his dog.  He needn't worry though, becasue the world is about to end.

Couldn't get into it.

Stars: 2