just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Isn't that a gorgeous cover? #thingsyousavebook https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx3wAxAAgrb/?igshid=o7b2l28l3fas

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

House on Fire by Bonnie Kistler

I received my copy of House on Fire as an ARC via a Goodreads giveaway, which has no impact on my review.

House on Fire is Bonnie Kistler’s first novel and will be published on March 12, 2019, by Atria Books.

Pete and Leigh Conley are each on their second marriage, and with five children between them, they feel amazingly blessed to be able to make this blended family work. There are no “your kids” and “my kids”: only “our kids.” At least until Pete and Leigh are out of town celebrating their anniversary and receive a call that his just-turned-18-year-old son, Kip, and her 14-year-old daughter, Chrissy, have been in a car accident.

While both teens say they are physically okay Kip failed field sobriety tests and already had a suspended license from a recent drinking and driving incident. But a few hours later, Chrissy is dead, and manslaughter charges are brought against Kip, endangering his summer political internship, his educational future at Duke University, and his freedom.

Battle lines are drawn and the family begins to fracture even more when Kip asserts that he was actually not the one who was driving that night: Chrissy was. Leigh cannot believe her perfect daughter would do such a thing, while Pete clings to the hope that this time his imperfect son is telling the truth.

This book is sure to draw comparisons to Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You as it is also a novel that explores the effect the loss of a child/sibling has on a family. Although Ng uses delicate phrasing to evoke literary imagery, I greatly prefer Kistler’s writing style. It is obvious her years as an attorney have helped her develop her ability to look at a situation from multiple angles. Consequently, her characters feel more three-dimensional and less like stereotypical caricatures.

Kistler does an excellent job of exploring grief here—far better, in fact, that last year’s National Book Award winner (Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend) which was ostensibly about grief, but which I found to be as shallow as a paper cut. The grief here is the Marianas Trench, threatening to entrap the family in its depths.

As Leigh tries to move through her grief, she develops a new friendship that adds a philosophical element to the novel. When is it okay to lie? Kistler’s exploration of this is wonderful, and it’s one of the reasons the book will stick with me for a long time.

The only faults I can find with the book lie in the subplots. One of them took an unforeseen left turn about 80% of the way through the novel. While it had been subtly foreshadowed and was well planned, it also came across almost as a trick devised to propel the plot instead of something organic. I didn’t feel it was executed all that well, and the fact that it (along with a couple other subplots) were left unresolved was a blemish on what otherwise was almost a perfect debut novel.

I did like the ending and how it cycled around to echo the past while looking toward the future. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on what Kistler has to offer in the future.

4 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

No Exit by Taylor Adams

No Exit by Taylor Adams is a 2019 suspense thriller featuring Darby Thorne, a college student driving through Colorado mountains toward Provo, Utah, where her mother is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer. In the midst of a major weather event (Snowmageddon), Darby loses cell reception, then a windshield wiper, then traction, and has to take refuge at a rest stop where four other people are waiting.

While outside searching for a signal so she can check in with her sister to see how their mother is, Darby sees movement inside a work van, and realizes there is a child trapped in a dog kennel inside.

Darby becomes focused on finding out which of the people inside the rest stop was driving the van, and how she can rescue the child and keep them both safe until help arrives.

The premise for the book sounded amazing, but it never quite lived up to it for me. For some reason, I thought Taylor Adams was a female’s name (much like Ashley in the novel), and I hate to say it but he falls into the category of male authors who can’t write convincing female characters.

We didn’t get enough of Darby’s back story to explain why she would want to free the child (and no, I don’t buy the “because it’s the right thing to do” line—people stand by or pass by and let horrible things happen every single day, or, you know, record it for Facebook Live or YouTube) or why it’s important to her. This made her more of a cardboard character than anything else.

The story’s set-up was executed well, and I wasn’t surprised to later read the author has experience in film. It was very visual and seemed well thought out.

But there were irritants (like the constant use of parenthetical phrases during the first few pages). I think I read more of those in the first chapter than I did in the entirety of the 78 books I read last year.

Adams also seemed intent on stacking SHOCKING TWIST! on top of SHOCKING TWIST! to the point that it was too much. It would have been a shocking twist had there not been a SHOCKING TWIST! in the final pages.

Also, there was a scene when it had been remarked that the snow had stopped falling, yet later a character is thinking about (something spoilery) being outside and getting covered in snow.

All in all, this was a great idea with not-so-great execution. If you want to read a story about a young woman risking life and limb to save an endangered child, stick to Intensity by Dean Koontz. It’s a far better read than this bargain-bin retread.

2 out of 5 stars

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

This is a tough review to write, because I feel like no matter what I say it won’t be enough.

This is one of the best and most important books on racial issues in the USA today.

Oluo presents information in a straightforward way. She asks a question at the beginning of a chapter, then proceeds to answer it. She does cite sources for a lot of her points, but asks you to Google for more information. Not an unreasonable request.

Being primarily of western European and Scandinavian ancestry, I have not had to face a lot of the issues Oluo talks about here. But as someone who has benefitted from white privilege and acknowledges that it exists, I wanted to try to understand a different perspective.

It’s tough, y’all.

I mean, despite my best intentions, I found myself resistant to a couple of ideas Oluo presented. I had to stop and reflect, and pinpoint exactly what it was about her statements that was provoking my response. 

I do appreciate her bluntness. She doesn’t pull punches and she doesn’t seek to make you comfortable. I think a lot of times when we (humans, not specifically white people) want to learn something new, we seek out experiences that will be easy and make us comfortable, and this is just not one of them. If you are not ready to have your ideas challenged, you shouldn’t bother picking up this book.

I do feel like there is a great deal to be learned here, not only about systemic racism and how everyone of every skin color can help in breaking down the system, but ways in which we can approach the topic of race on a personal level, and why and when it is important to speak out, and why deep introspection is needed by a great many people.

Not an easy book to read or reality to face, but it doesn’t get much more important than this. I think if you can take the issues Oluo addresses here and incorporate them into your life, not only will you come away with a greater understanding of the current racial landscape, you might just come away as a better person if you can get past the discomfort of self-examination.

5 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Christine by Stephen King

Dennis Guilder narrates the tale of a doomed love triangle between his best friend Arnie Cunningham, new-to-school hot girl Leigh Cabot, and Arnie’s car, Christine.

The book starts slow. For the first half, you’re not sure whether this is psychological or supernatural horror. Then King supplies the answer and barrels toward an ending that is not exactly satisfying, but is probably one that suits the story best.

Like many of King’s other works, this one features teens who don’t always make the best decisions—in other words, realistic ones—and the characters (and their poor choices) are one of the book’s strengths.

Overall, this is a decent King book, but not one of my favorites of his.

4 out of 5 stars

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb is the first book in the Liveship Traders trilogy, which is book 4 and the beginning of the second trilogy in the author’s interconnected Realms of the Elderlings series. It was originally published in 1998.

This is only the second Robin Hobb book I have read, and I was unaware until after I’d started it that it was somehow related to the Farseer trilogy, else I probably would have finished the former before starting this. However, while the stories may take place in the same world, it doesn’t feel like you have to read the first trilogy before diving into this one. I just usually prefer to read in publication order to see how the author’s writing progresses.

In this book, you are following the viewpoints of multiple characters. I usually don’t have problems with this type of book, but I did have a little uncertainty as to who was who at the beginning of this massive (832 pages) novel.

Objectively, I can see Hobb was establishing the characters and setting up their story arcs, but it felt like it took just a little too long to get going.

Althea Vestrit begins the story on the liveship Vivacia. Liveships are a form of magical sailing vessel, bound to members of a particular family. The liveships are made of wizardwood, an enchanted substance that allows the ships to be sailed through the caustic waters of the Rain Wild River (which will eat through the hull of regular ships) enabling the Bingtown Trader families exclusive access to trade the exotic and magical goods of the Rain Wilders.

Liveships have a prow sculpted from wizardwood which becomes sentient after being “quickened,” which occurs after 3 generations of the same family have perished aboard the liveship. The wizardwood retains the knowledge of the sailors who have perished on their decks, and they share a bond with the family members.

Althea knows Vivacia inside and out, having been practically raised (much to her mother’s dismay) aboard the ship. Her brother-in-law Kyle, who is married to her older sister, Keffria, is returning to port after a trading mission. When they arrive home, Althea learns her beloved father, who had sent Kyle on this journey in his stead because he was feeling ill, is dying.

The family hurries Ephron Vestrit to the ship so that his passing will quicken Vivacia as he will be the third generation to perish aboard her. Althea is devastated at losing her father, even if it means Vivacia will be quickened and she will inherit the ship she loves second only to her father.

But Althea is shattered to not only lose her father, but to learn that in her absence her mother talked her father into giving Vivacia to Keffria, who has no knowledge or desire to captain a trading vessel, live or otherwise. Instead, Keffria gives the ship to her husband Kyle, a hothead who had confined Althea to her quarters for the last part of the journey home.

Broken by loss, Althea leaves home and begins a quest to regain what she feels is her rightful inheritance.

There are other major characters the story follows, and Hobb is fairly merciless to all of them. They don’t always make the smartest or best decisions, and bad things often happen to them as a result. This goes a long way toward making the characters feel real and making the reader care about their situations. Except Althea’s niece, Malta. That girl needs to be set on fire with an accelerant.

It was interesting watching Hobb weave the various storylines together. Despite the book’s massive size and knowing going in that it was a trilogy, it could and should have been a little longer, as it did not have a proper ending. It just left a lot of dangling questions unanswered.

While I enjoyed the book enough to continue the series, I do prefer each book to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. This feels more like The Lord of the Rings where a singular massive work was chopped into three pieces so as not to break the printing presses. I did not like the multiple cliffhangers, and, truthfully, they felt more like abrupt endings rather than cliffhangers.

Because of the slow start and the loose endings, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.  

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson is a young adult science-fiction novel published in 2005. It’s the first in the author’s Maximum Ride series.

The story follows Maximum (Max) Ride and 5 other genetically altered teenagers who have wings (and other abilities). After spending their first years in a laboratory environment where they were experimented on, the kids were freed by one of the scientists who hid them, cared for them, and gave them a taste of what having a father figure would be like. At least, right up until he disappeared.

Since their pseudo-father’s presumed death, Max has done her best to look after the rest of the Flock. But now their hiding place has been uncovered by Erasers—genetically engineered beings similar to werewolves—who capture Angel, the Flock’s youngest (6 years old) member.

Max makes plans for a rescue mission to the School: the research facility where the Flock was held, but things don’t go exactly as planned.

This is generally the type of book I would devour (and I did read it pretty fast, but that was primarily due to the short chapters and the burning desire I had to just make it stop). I mean, give me an X-Menesque tale with kids in peril, and I’m there.

But this was lacking in one important thing for me: the ability to suspend disbelief. There are too many issues to list, and most would be spoilers, so I’ll just settle for saying there were multiple times when I thought, “But that doesn’t make sense because [fill in the blank with something simple and logical that the author overlooked in favor of speeding the plot along].” It was so incredibly frustrating.

The first clue I had that this was going to be a struggle was on page 16 when I encountered this sentence: I wheezed and struggled, and one of them cuffed my face hard, his ragged claws digging deep welts in my cheek.”

Umm. Welts are raised on top of flesh, not something dug into it. How did this make it past an editor?

The parts of the book I enjoyed were Max’s feelings toward the Flock, how she felt like the older sibling who has been thrust into a caretaker role and just wants everything to work out for everyone else.

We won’t talk about the really awkward kiss near the end.

Or how the book doesn’t really end, just raises more questions and expects you follow along to get answers. No thanks. Hard pass.

1 out of 5 stars

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Jackson & Franklin by Shawn Sprague

I received my copy of this book via Goodreads giveaway, which has no influence on my review. Jackson & Franklin by Shawn Sprague is the story of Danny Abbot’s fifth-grade year, in which his favorite teacher ends up in a coma, and he moves up in Little League. He also encounters bullies (both kid and adult) and experiences his first crush.

The book itself is a little difficult to categorize. Although it’s written as the reminiscence of adult Danny, it’s very much suited for middle-grade audiences. Except for the multiple uses of “asshole” and at least one “screw you!” It’s sort of on the border between middle grade and young adult. Slightly more PG-13 than the former and more PG than the latter.

There isn’t really a cohesive plot. It’s almost like listening to a couple of old guys at the VFW talking about their youths after putting away a few beers. They get sidetracked and go off on tangents, and by the time they get to the end you don’t even remember what the story started off being about, just a few points that stand out along the way, and that it took longer to tell than you think it really should’ve.

This will mainly appeal to former Little Leaguers (I think the game and the world has changed so much now that modern ones won’t be impressed) and/or their parents who look back fondly on the days of hustling from school to practice to home.

I never played in an organized league, but I had friends who played at high competitive levels, so a lot of this part of the book rang true and made sense to me. I even knew all the MLB stars who were name-dropped in the book. Even so, this book was just okay for me.

2 out of 5 stars

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Firestarter by Stephen King

I feel like there’s not a lot that hasn’t been said about this early (originally published in 1980) Stephen King novel, so I’ll keep it short.

Firestarter is the story of Andy McGee and his daughter, Charlie. Andy and his late wife participated in a medical trial because they needed the $200 that was paid to volunteers. Unfortunately for them, Lot Six was more than it was made out to be, and Andy and Vicky developed mental powers as a result.

Later, they married and had Charlie, who early in infancy displayed the terrifying ability to set things on fire at whim.

When the story opens, Andy and Charlie are on the run, fighting to stay ahead of agents from The Shop (think a darker, deadlier version of the CIA), and Vicky is dead.

This is vintage King all the way. He starts out with good people in peril, and keeps amping the tension as the story progresses.

Even though there were a few predictable moments, this was a really good book, and it proves that once upon a time Stephen King actually knew how to end a story. 

The villain is engaging and threatening, the father/daughter bond between Andy & Charlie is heartwarming, and the action scenes are vividly imagined. Undoubtedly one of King’s best.

5 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin

Echoes from the Dead is a translated fiction work from Swedish author Johan Theorin. Originally published in 2007, the Swedish Academy of Crime gave it the Best First Mystery Novel award. It is first in a series called The Öland Quartet.

Julia Davidsson is existing rather than living. Since her 5-year-old son disappeared 20 years ago, Julia has become estranged from her family and entered into a loving relationship with alcohol, Her stupor and self-inflicted exile are interrupted when she receives a call from her father, Gerlof. He is calling to tell her of a strange package he has received in the mail: a package that contained a young boy’s single sandal.

Julia, who is on a mental health break from her job as a nurse, reluctantly returns home and joins forces with her father to try to find out once and for all what happened to Jens 20 years ago.

I found this to be an interesting novel. It was fast-paced, tension-filled, and not predictable. Not only did it deal with the mystery surrounding Jens’ disappearance, but it was also about forgiveness, dealing with depression-induced alcoholism, and trying to find some measure of acceptance following a tragic loss.

There were a couple of leaps of logic/intuition by Gerlof that I thought were perhaps a little too convenient, but the plot felt pretty tight overall. Julia’s arc of character growth was impressive: you could feel the ache of losing her only child, then share the sense of relief as she began lowering her walls.

The translation to English was smooth. If you’re interested in Nordic fiction but find Stieg Larsson too wordy and slow-paced, give this one a try.

My understanding is that other books in the series take place on the same island as this one, but follow different characters in each. I am interested in continuing the series at some point.

4 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval by Stephanie Garber is a YA fantasy/romance published by Flatiron Books in 2017. It is the first novel in a planned trilogy.

Caraval is a magical traveling show produced by a man known only as Legend, Scarlett has been obsessed with Caraval since hearing her grandmother’s stories of it as a small child.

It reminded me a bit of a dinner murder mystery, where a group of people gathers to solve a mystery, and you’re never really quite sure of the intentions of the person seated next to you, and whether or not they’re an actor who is in on the production.

I can’t say I loved this.

I barely tolerated it.

I will say that I think in proper hands this could be a much better movie than it was a book.

Basically, we follow Scarlett through the novel as she tries to find her sister, Donatella, who has been kidnapped by Legend as part of this year’s game. The prize for the person who finds Donatella is a wish.

With all the actors involved, this amounted to a colossal mind-fuck, where you were never fully in on what was happening. This could have been handled much better, as the passages dealing with this were repetitious, condescending, and just not well written.

It’s hard to discuss the book without spoilers so I won’t go too far into it. I will say I found the “romance” to be formulaic and problematic for a variety of reasons. And I absolutely hated the ending.

I will probably pick up the sequel at some point, just to see where this goes, but I feel like it will likely be the last of her books I attempt to read.

2 out of 5 stars

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam

That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam is a contemporary literary fiction novel, published in 2018. It follows the story of Rebecca Stone, a published poet. It's the 1980s, and she and her husband, Christopher, are welcoming their first child, Jacob, into the world as the novel begins.

Rebecca develops a severe case of postpartum depression and has trouble managing Jacob. A nursing consultant, Priscilla Johnson, gives Rebecca a much-needed sense of accomplishment. Rebecca determines she cannot function without Priscilla's help, so she offers her a permanent job as Jacob's nanny.

Rebecca is a privileged white woman whose wealth is a buffer from reality.  Priscilla is a black woman who has struggled to raise a daughter as a single mom. Rebecca develops a growing dependency on Priscilla, yet fancies herself the woman's friend rather than an employer.

Rebecca's world threatens to collapse when Priscilla informs her that she is pregnant. Christopher tries to prepare Rebecca for Priscilla's impending departure from their lives, but Rebecca insists nothing has to change.

But it does. Priscilla dies during childbirth. Priscilla's daughter, Cheryl, is 2 weeks away from delivering her own baby and is overwhelmed by the loss of her mother and the impending arrival of her own daughter. Rebecca, used to getting what she wants, offers to take Priscilla's son "for now," which eventually ends with the Stones adopting Andrew.

I feel like this book posed a lot of interesting questions, but never had any answers. There was rich ground to explore (inter-racial adoption), but aside from a few cursory probings, it went untouched.

Rebecca is not at all a likable character. Which, to be fair, is not a prerequisite for me to enjoy a book. Still, she was egotistical, a bit too much of a Pollyanna when it came to others' lives, and spoiled to having things her own way. She also had a mild obsession with Princess Diana and imagined parallels between their lives.

To be honest, I kept waiting (and almost hoping) for the fatal car crash so their lives could bear a little more resemblance to one another.

The reveal at the end was a non-issue. In fact, the entire ending was a mess. I was left wondering what sort of therapy Rebecca's sons would need. I would only recommend this book if you like poetic language that overlays a plot that never goes anywhere.

2 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Assassin's Apprentice is a fantasy book by Robin Hobb, published in 1995. It is the first book in the Farseer Trilogy.

I'm on the fence about whether to categorize this book as adult or young adult. The protagonist, Fitz, is a 6-year-old when we first meet him. By story's end, he is in his mid teens. So, by the standard of "how old is the main character?" it would be young adult, but its vocabulary targets an older audience, so in that sense it reads like an adult book.

When we first meet Fitz, he has very little memory of who he is. In fact, he doesn't even have a name that he can recall. Nothing beyond "Boy." An old man presumed to be his grandfather is surrendering him to the care of the royal family. Fitz, you see, is the bastard of the crown prince.

Fitz falls in the care of the stable master, Burrich, after the crown prince abdicates his claim to the throne and abandons them both. We soon discover Fitz has a mental ability to bond with animals—an ability called Wit—which Burrich despises and is afraid of.

As we follow Fitz's life, he leaves Burrich's care and relocates to the palace at the behest of his grandfather, the King. The King has decided the best way to deal with Fitz is to prevent him from becoming a threat to the throne by using him as a royal assassin.

Divulging more of the plot would be bordering on spoiler territory, so I won't. Suffice it to say, that this is a somewhat lengthy (464 pages in this version) introduction to a fantasy world.

For people who like action-packed fantasy, this isn't going to fit the bill. Hobb takes her time developing young Fitz—his sense of isolation and abandonment, his search for belonging, his desire to prove himself worthy of being more than an illegitimate child—and I can see where this slow pace might turn off some readers. It's a very character-driven story, and one that will most appeal to readers who have shared Fitz's feelings of not quite fitting in anywhere.

For me, it was very relatable, and I found Fitz's coming of age to be compelling. Hobb proved her writing chops to me when—knowing this was the first in a series and that Fitz was most likely to continue as protagonist—I still felt a sense of dread and worry that he wouldn't survive a crucial point of the book.

I was thinking this was going to be a solid 4-star read all the way until the end of the final chapter, which left me teary-eyed, and caused me to elevate the writing to 5 stars, and Robin Hobb to the ranks of my favorite authors.

5 out of 5 stars.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

December 2018 & Annual Wrap-Up

In December, I acquired 42 books and read 6. As always, book links are provided by clicking on the title.

Books I read (ranked in order of most to least favorite—and in the case of the last one: utter shit)) were:

1. The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

2. The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane

3. A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer duBois

4. Freedom City by Philip Becnel

5. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

6. Descent by Tim Johnston

Books I acquired during December

Books acquired via giveaways:

1. The Warner Boys: Our Family’s Story of Autism and Hope by Curt and Ana Warner

2. My Fight for My Family by David Jordan

3. Hell Inc. by Dick Wybrow

4. The Burnt Summer by Chris Ledoux

5. The Martin Chronicles by John Fried

6. Eden at the Edge of Midnight by John Kerry

7. When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be Kenneth Tobey by Wesley R, Mullen

8. Living Proof by Peter J. Thompson

9. Murder, She Vaped: The Ironic T-Shirt Caper by Gregg Maxwell Parker

10. The Whole of the Moon by Rush Leaming

11. Five O’Clock Shadow by Karen Lenfestey

12. House on Fire by Bonnie Kistler

13. Surviving Minimized by Andrea White

14, Seeking Glory by Patricia Hamilton Shook

15. Culling the Herd by Edward R. Etzkorn

16. Winter’s Heist by Emily Duvall

Free books I received

1. The Road Beyond Ruin by Gemma Liviero

2. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

3. Luna: New Moon by Ian MacDonald

4. The Armored Saint by Myke Cole

Books I Bought

1.Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

2. The Rose & the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh

3. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke

4. Crota by Owl Goingback

5. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

6. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

7. The Book of Swords by Gardner Dozois

8. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

9. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

10. Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

11. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

12. The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

13. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

14. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

15. A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

16. Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

17. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

18. Sadie by Courtney Summers

19. Legendary by Stephanie Garber

20. The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

21. Mitosis by Brandon Sanderson

22. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

I ended the year having read 24,576 pages across 78 books. That does not include the books I DNFed.

The average book length was 314 pages, with the shortest book being 22 pages and the longest being 752.

My average rating was 3.2 stars, which seems like kind of a “meh” year to me, which I guess it was. Out of the 78 books, only 6 were 5-star reads for me. And on reflection, there are two of those I would probably drop to 4 stars.

Looking ahead to 2019: my goals are to read 50 books, with at least 12 of those being Stephen King books since I own so many of them. 

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

2018 in Review, and Looking Ahead

So, it’s been a minute.

Hopefully, I’ll be posting more regularly in the new year, but I’m not going to make a resolution I know I’ll likely break. As it is, I’ve used Tumblr more this year than I have in any previous one, so I’m pretty happy with that.

I post a lot more reviews on Goodreads, but hopefully can gain more consistency with posting here as well.

I don’t think I will finish either of my current reads before 2019, so it looks like I’ll be ending the year with 78 books read. There were a few more that I DNFed, ‘cause life is too short to torture yourself with things you don’t enjoy: I mean, family reunions are already a thing, right?

My goal for this year was to complete the 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge—the extended 50-book version—and I had finished that before July was over. I don’t think I’ll do another challenge like it in the near future, though I did have a lot of fun trying to find books to fit the various prompts, and I forced myself to read books I never would have picked up otherwise, and found several of those that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

I won a lot of Goodreads giveaways (more than 180 at the time of this post), but didn’t get around to reading nearly as many as I would have liked.

My only real reading goals for 2019 are to read 50 books (a little under 1 per week) and to read at least a dozen Stephen King novels. I own most of his titles, but haven’t read a lot of his stuff from the 90s onward, so I intend on going back and reading (in publication order) those I’ve missed. Some of those are chunkers, so even the goal of 50 books might be set a little high depending on what I pick up for the rest of the year.

I did have some odd and interesting experiences with reviews this year. There was one author who had sent me a personalized autographed copy of her novel, and upon reading it I gave it a 1-star review, with very specific reasons I didn’t like the book, and examples of the horrid editing that had made reading it such a chore. The author took the time to issue a rebuttal on my review, stating that the original publisher had spent a lot of money on a professional editor and they had made all the requested changes.

I didn’t know how to respond, so I didn’t, and not just because the author’s blog seemed to indicate they were having a severe mental health struggle at the time. It was just...weird.

Another book I DNFed after 20-something pages because, among other issues, it was extremely misogynistic. That author did not publicly respond to my review, but instead sent a private message that left me more than a little unsettled. “Creepy” doesn’t even begin to cut it,

My best author-interaction experience came from one of the books I won via Goodreads, and which the author had autographed. I was pleasantly surprised by the genre-blending, though not quite blown away, and wound up giving it a 4-star review and stating that I would be willing to read more from the author, That was given a simple “”Like” by the author, but I felt that brief acknowledgement was far better than either of the other experiences I had.

Hope you all had a good reading year, and next year will be even better.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

October’s Book Haul

So, when I wasn’t having life-altering, vehicle-obliterating wrecks, I was acquiring a lot of books: 47, to be exact.

In comparison, I only read 5 books for the month, but considering I had vision issues after the accident, I’ll give myself a pass on that one.

I’ll skip the descriptions and just provide title and author. I will provide a link to the book on Goodreads. In case you’re interested in checking them out, just click on the book title. I’ll also mention the manner in which I acquired the book.

Free eBooks:

1. Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb ~ via Amazon First Reads (if you have Amazon Prime and don’t use this monthly feature, you really should!)

2. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle ~ via Tor.com (Check out their website if you like monthly freebies)

Won eBooks ~ acquired via giveaways

3. Lost Arrow by Marshall Ross ~ from the author

4. Daughter of the Sun by A.J. Tamko ~ from the author

5. Our Vietnam Wars by William F. Brown ~ from the author

6. In Your Hands by Ines Pedrosa ~ from Amazon Publishing

7. Karina by E.B. Mann ~ from the author

8. The Man on the Porch by Shawn Raymond Poatillo ~ from the author

9. How Do You Deal with a Dead Girl? by Andrew Demcak ~ from the author

10. Cold Iron by Miles Cameron ~ from Orbit Books

11. Managing Bubbie by Russel Lazega ~ from the author

12. Terra 1 by Ross Turner ~ from the author

13. Synanon Kid Grows Up: A Memoir of Learning to Live Outside the Synanon Cult by C.A. Wittman ~ from the author

Purchased eBooks (yes, occasionally I am forced to pay for them myself)

14. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

15. The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson

16. My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd

17. The Poisoner’s Enemy by Jeff Wheeler

18. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

19. Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

20. Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

21. Unfettered — anthology edited by Shawn Speakman, featuring works by Terry Brooks, Patrick Rothfuss, and more.

Won physical books ` via giveaways

22. Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding ~ from Gallery Books

23. After the Fire by Will Hill ~ from Sourcebooks

24. BRAT and the Kids of Warriors by Michael Joseph Lyons ~  from (I think?) a librarian

Purchased physical books (most of these came from my library’s annual book sale and were no more than $2, and I only spent $14 on those in total. I bought a couple others from a used bookstore for $2 each, and the only one that I purchased brand new and for anything near full retail value is the last book listed)

25. The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones

26. The Diviners by Libba Bray

27. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

28. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

29. Nutshell by Ian McEwan

30. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

31. Tell No One by Harlan Coben

32. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

33. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

34. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

35. Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughn

36. When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops by George Carlin

37. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

38. Magyk by Angie Sage

39. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

40. Confessions by Kanae Minato

41. The Ghost Writer by John Harwood

42. Napalm & Silly Putty by George Carlin

43. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

44. The Girls by Emma Cline

45. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

46. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

47. Elevation by Stephen King

So, yeah, quite a month for accruing new reads (for which I am rapidly running out of space), quite a few of which have been on my wish list for a while and I’m looking forward to reading. Of the books I won, I think I am most looking forward to After the Fire. Of the books I purchased, Steelheart is probably at the front of the list.

[just-an-unrepentant-bibliophile]

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

I picked up The Cabin at the End of the World from my local library after reading a sample chapter online. It’s a recently released horror/thriller novel that isn’t all that long, but remains suspenseful throughout.

The story begins with 7-year-old Wen playing in the yard of the remote vacation cabin rented by her adoptive dads. As she collects grasshoppers and puts them in a jar, she hears a noise on the drive. It turns out to be the biggest man Wen has ever seen.

Despite realizing the possibility of Stranger Danger, Wen talks and plays with Leonard, then he becomes serious and tells her that none of what is about to happen is her fault, and that she’s going to have to tell her dads that he and his friends (who have just arrived in the drive, carrying crudely repurposed gardening tools) need to come into the cabin, and she has to convince them to let his crew in.

The suspense builds as what is essentially a home invasion turns into a hostage situation, and Wen and her dads (Andrew and Eric) are told the three of them are the key to saving humanity, but in order for that to happen, the three of them have to decide which of them will be sacrificed for the good of humanity, and the other two have to kill that person.

The remote nature of the cabin plays against them as there are no nearby cell towers, so their phones are useless.

Point of view switches between the three family members as well as their captors. Some of the scenes dovetail with the new POV character reacting to something said or done by someone else at the end of the previous chapter. It’s an effective technique in making you feel as if you are there, surveying the situation and seeing things from each participant’s perspective.

The story touches on a lot of issues: religion, mass delusions in the digital age, widespread negative media coverage, but it’s the family dynamics at the heart of the story and the very real sense of danger you feel for them that propels the story forward.

There are scenes of explicit violence, so if you’re sensitive to such things, you’re advised to proceed with caution.

There was one editing error that caught my attention and irritated me. I don’t think having someone competent proofread a professionally published book is too much to ask, but it was missed here when a nervous tick (sic) was mentioned. My first thought (which I scribbled on a sticky note, affixed to the page, then promptly forgot about it and later returned still inside the book—oops!) was why are the emotional states of other parasites like fleas and hookworms ignored? What makes ticks so special? ALL PARASITES MATTER!

I’ve seen a few people quibble that there weren’t enough concrete facts to work with in the center section to form a complete idea of what was really happening, but I think that was by design. The not knowing, the constant fear and doubt, are cogs in the suspense wheel.  These characters and their experience will stick with me for a while.

The ending wasn’t one you’ll like if you want everything neatly tied up with a bow. While I had a lot of feelings about it, I think in a lot of ways it made perfect sense to end the way it did.  If you’re looking for a good suspenseful read for the Halloween season, you could do a lot worse than this.

4 out of 5 stars.