#194 In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I know this one made Karen's list as it was the book chosen from our book club buddy, that is from Kansas, when we were reading books from our home state.  Neither one of us got around to reading it at that time and both of us had it on our list, until now.  I listened to the audio version of the book through the past week and felt the book to be so long and repetitive.  Parts of the crime was retold so many times I was just tired of hearing about it after awhile.  I did like hearing the backgrounds of the killers as it gives the reader some understanding why and how they were able to commit such crimes.  It really is just a sad story and I can't say I'm glad I read it, but I have been curious of it and have been wanting to read it so I'm glad I was finally able to get to it.

#2 The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

I hadn't even heard of this one until I saw it on Karen's list.  Apparently it is Mary Kubica's debut novel.  I enjoyed it. It is a suspense novel about a kidnapping gone wrong and then trying to figure out why and who's behind it all.  I saw on goodreads several people compared it to Gone Girl as it was under "if you liked Gone Girl you may like this one..." and many people/reviewers were disappointed as they felt this one was so poorly written in comparison.  I agree to a point.  This one was predictable, but it was so much cleaner that I actually preferred this one over Gone Girl.  I felt Gone Girl was smut and was/am embarrassed to admit I even read it.  This one doesn't go into all the sexual details which I prefer.  Call me a prude, I don't mind! 

As I was reading it I thought, Karen would love this one!  It's a page-turner with short chapters.  A very fast read with a twist at the end.  The last few books I've read have been so dark and depressing so I actually found this one kind of refreshing.

#8 That Night by Chevy Stevens

A thriller about a teenage boy and girl being accused of murder and spending 15 years behind bars for a crime they never committed.  The couple was determined to clear their names once they got out and it was not easy dealing with small town politics, but after another murder and more crimes were committed their names were finally cleared.

The book was very dark with the use of drugs, drinking and just lying, cheating, sex and sneaking around.  The entire time I listened to the book I just felt, yuck.  So grateful I don't live the lifestyle and when I was a bit more ornery in my teenage years I was able to walk away and not look back.  Even though the couple was innocent, their lifestyle was so dark and it felt like it was just a matter of time before they would be behind bars, even though they didn't commit this crime. 

The bully in this book also hit close to home.  I could totally relate to having to deal with someone that is psychologically messed up and how this person messes with others people's lives and how they are able to control so many people.  I found it very interesting and right on as far as bullies go. 

I really didn't like the book.  It was way too dark for me.  It was sad and miserable and even the ending didn't make a person feel relieved.  So much bitterness and hatred and just sadness.  I read to escape, learn, grow and this book didn't do any of those things for me. 

11/22/63 by Stephen King "Currently Reading"

As I've mentioned before, this is my first ever read of anything by Stephen King. My sister passed recently, and a group of us are reading her to-read list as a tribute to her. Her list had lots of Beverly Lewis and Jodi Picoult, a couple pages of James Patterson, and a few gems - mostly things I'd recommended to her. ;) Everyone else in the group either had read this already, or was put off by the sheer size of the book, so I was nominated to read it. Ironically, since I'm a huge fan of historical and speculative fiction, this was right up my alley.

The premise here is that the narrator has access to a "rabbit hole", a gateway to the past. The rabbit hole always takes him back to the same day in 1958. He is convinced by a friend to go back in time and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing John F. Kennedy; since he can only go back to 1958, he has to live through the intervening five years while he waits for Oswald to arrive in Dallas, and these five years are the meat of the story.

One of the most common less-than-positive comments I've heard about this book is that it's so immense, and I do feel that there are parts of the story that were not crucial to the plot and that could have been trimmed down or removed altogether. The narrator performs two "trial-runs" to see what effect his actions in the past will have on the future. While reading these parts of the book, I couldn't help feeling that, while they were interesting, they were mostly just keeping us from getting to the heart of the story.

I have a couple other issues with King's handling of certain characters - specifically, Jake's ex-wife, who is an alcoholic, and Sadie's ex-husband, who is mentally ill. But in the narrator's eyes, these aren't bad people who also happen to have these other flaws; Jake's ex-wife is a bad person because she's an alcoholic. John Clayton is a bad person because he is mentally ill. Ergo, all alcoholic women are conniving b*tches and all mentally ill persons are deranged stalker-killers.

After going to so much trouble to explore some of the characters, I was disappointed that King's portrayal of Oswald was so one-dimensional. There was no attempt to explain the reasoning Oswald employed for killing Kennedy; Oswald is just portrayed as a sociopath bent on getting the attention he felt society owed him.

I did like two concepts related to time travel that King uses well - the idea of the "obdurate past", which is the idea that the past resists being changed; the greater the change, the stronger the resistance. Coupled with that is the concept that changes to the past will have repercussions beyond the specific changed event: the "butterfly effect". While Jake thinks some of his actions are small and inconsequential, he comes to realize that, just by even being in the past, he's creating ripples of change in the future.  

~Kristopher

#69 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

This book is about a two high school boys named Will Grayson.  Both boys go to different schools and just so happen to meet each other in Chicago at a porn shop.  Yeah.  One Will Grayson is best friends with a large young man named Tiny that happens to be gay and the other Will Grayson is a moody, depressed gay young man that dates Tiny.  Tiny is a lovable character.  Tiny writes a musical about his life and love and that is how the book ends.

I really disliked this book and tried to pawn it off to my friends to read as the language was so bad and the sexting was way out of my comfort zone.  However, they would not read it so I endured the book and skimmed through the bad language and ignored the sexual parts. 

I did like the ending though.  It actually brought me to tears. Very sweet ending.

The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma #36

I'm not going to lie. Really didn't care for this book. The premise of the book sounds like it will be a lovely story. It is about a father who makes a promise to his daughter at the age of 10 that he will read aloud to her every night for 1,000 hours. He ends up reading to her every night until she is 18 and moves away. Sounds sweet right? 

Well it ends up being a book more about how this father is bragging about how he did this great thing and other parents didn't and what a shame (guilt trip much). The funny thing is this seems like a great thing but he seems to blow over bigger things that are going on in his daughters' lives. Yes he has two daughters the other asked him to stop reading to her early on. Hmmm interesting. The one daughter actually leaves the house and there is no mention of her again. Other serious things seem to be happening but we just continue to talk about the reading of the books. Wait did you mention a suicide attempt nope lets not just blow over that and make sure we read tonight. Strange. 

Not a fan. And it's a shame because the premise of this book held lots of potential.

Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly - # 76

There were many things about this story I loved. The lovely relationship that this young girl Calpurnia was forging with her grandfather and he shared (rather reluctantly at first) his great love for science and nature. Also the time period in which it was told you could feel yourself there and through the eyes of a young adolescent girl of that time period. 

I enjoyed a story about a girl learning to follow her passion even though it didn't fit the norm of what a girl of that time period should be doing. But I really didn't enjoy how much she demeaned the position of a homemaker. I know it isn't for everyone but it bothers me to be looked down upon. Yes there is a lot of monotony to the job but there is so much job as well. Being the mother and wife of a loving family is quite rewarding in so many ways. Sad that she didn't seem to understand or grasp that. 

I think Karen would have enjoyed this if for nothing else than the girl reminded me a bit of her youngest daughter Erika and her great love of bugs and little critters. Calpurnia definitely was an Erika kind of girl!