Category: books and reading

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books and reading

If We Had Known

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As much as I want to say that I relate to characters in books, it’s only partly true. I can empathize and understand, but to say I see myself in them is pretty rare. I can see myself in small ways, like characters who like to read, sure, that’s something I can relate to. But for a character to really get into my soul is rare. Cath of Fangirl certainly did. Aza in  Turtles All the Way Down definitely hit close to home. But I can’t think of a book that has hit me more than this one.

I used to teach high school English. Every time students turned in a paper, I knew one of them would be difficult to read. Usually a girl, but not always. I’ve read about abortions, rapes, assaults, and abuse. Each time, I would take the paper to the counselor and report what I had found. In all cases but one, the counselor was already aware and my responsibility ended there. The one case, though, I had to report to the authorities.

So, when a college teacher hears one of her former students has entered a mall, killed people, then killed himself, she is immediately reminded of what an unusual person he was. Not rude, but straight-forward. Didn’t seem to relate to her other students. And his final paper was about guns. Not exactly threatening, so she didn’t do anything about it. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Combined with her daughter, who has anxiety, as I do, this book just seeped into my world.

So, who is at fault? After Parkland, we learned that people had reported the shooter many times to no avail. So, it seems crazy that one teacher who didn’t turn in a paper about guns and hunting would shoulder all the blame. But in today’s world, this is exactly what can happen. Because the shooter is dead and we have to make sense of the senselessness, people are blamed: the NRA, the mental health world, the gun sellers, video games, violent music, the people surrounding the shooter who were unable to stop him, etc. To single out one of these is irresponsible and narrow-minded and won’t solve the problem. So, I felt for this poor teacher and what she had to go through. Judgment calls are made every day. The kid’s mother didn’t report him. The kids in the class didn’t report him. His co-workers didn’t report him. Other teachers didn’t report him. But this one teacher got the brunt of the blame. To stop this mass shooting epidemic, we have to dig deeper, stop pointing fingers AFTER the fact, and be more proactive and realistic about the problem. I’m not sure if the author wrote this to incite this kind of discussion, but it seems like as good of a time as any to do so.

I was really impacted by this book. I’m not sure everyone will be as much, though. As a teacher, as a person with anxiety, this book really dug into me and made me feel a lot of things that most books don’t. There are plenty of issues about parental divorce and abandonment, verbally abusive situations, and eating disorders, so be warned. But I really recommend this one.

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books and reading

The Road Out of Hell

I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts. I read a handful of books on the subject, as well, but sometimes they get too intense. I really enjoyed The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, Midnight Assassin, and The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer. There are a few others that I never reviewed, but not many are as intense as this one was. Although you know it’s non-fiction and the boy we read about escapes, the horrors he and others endured are beyond words.

Sanford Clark was sent to California to live with his uncle, Gordon Northcutt, on a chicken farm. Uncle Gordon was, to put it plainly, a monster. He kidnapped, raped, and killed little boys. Sanford lived there for two years and was forced to endure many horrifying things himself, including helping kill boys and dispose of bodies. As odd as it sounds, this book is also uplifting. Sanford’s survival was nothing short of heroic, as well as his sister, who never gave up on rescuing him. Sanford eventually marries and has kids (this is all in the beginning of the book, so I’m really not spoiling anything for you) and, although he struggled as an adult to let go of his past, he was constantly surrounded by love.

The details of what happened to Sanford and the other boys are terrible, but nowhere near as graphic as I  was expecting. The story really is about Sanford overcoming this terrible part of his life, how he survived, and how he turned his life into something meaningful. I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting.

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books and reading

Baal

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For the PopSugar Reading Challenge, I had no desire to read a book by or about a world leader. I just couldn’t think of anyone who interested me much. I’m not a political person, so I struggled with the prompt. My husband suggested Baal, though, which was about a person who wanted to take over the world. Baal being the anti-Christ. This book was much more up my alley.

I’ve read a couple of books by Robert McCammon, Swan Song and Boy’s Life, and both were excellent. Swan Song is a masterpiece, really, and it’s a must-read for dystopian fans. So I knew McCammon had a good track record, but I wasn’t sure about his more creature/horror type books. He has some about supernatural creatures, which isn’t really my thing, but I was going to give this one a chance and have to say, I really enjoyed this book.

Baal is born to a human mother, but we know from the onset that he’s the anti-Christ. As a child, he torments people and wreaks havoc upon every place he goes. Then he grows up, and his powers strengthen. Of course, he gets followers because, well, that’s what the anti-Christ is supposed to do. However, a few see him for what he is and refuse to let him continue his ways. As dark as the subject is, this book is really good and I enjoyed it a lot. It dragged a bit getting to the end, but for his first publication, this is a McCammon book that I  would still recommend.

 

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books and reading

Winter

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Whew! When I downloaded this book to listen to, I had no idea it was 800+ pages and 23+ hours long. I always listen on 1.5 speed, so that helped, but when I had to return it to the library in just a couple of days and had over 4 hours left, I had to double up to 2x speed. I can’t say it was easy to listen to that way, but I managed to finish in time and am pretty sure I fully understood what happened.

After Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Fairest, I was ready to see how it all ended. And with 800 pages of action, twists and turns, double crosses, and plenty of chaos, I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not a big fantasy/fairy tale person, but these books are really fantastic. Each one was better than the one before, just because I got more and more immersed into their world. I was always rooting for our heroes, and Scarlet is my favorite.

Even though this one was long, I didn’t feel like words were wasted. Everything moved the plot forward, even when our heroes had to take back a couple of steps. Nothing is solved easily, but nothing was in the first three books, so you don’t expect it to be in this one. These are excellent books for teenagers, but as an adult, I really appreciated how well-written they were and how the heroines were all different from one another but still awesome in their own rights. I will be recommending this series as much as I can.

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books and reading

Fairest

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I’m almost finished with Winter, after having read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. A friend recommended that I also read Fairest, which features Queen Levana. I was a bit turned off because of how much I hate Levana. She is easily the worst villain I’ve read in a while. She has zero redeeming qualities. Which I guess, makes her a great villain. But I just can’t wait for her downfall.

In this origin story, we meet Levana and Channary as young women. You see how Levana ended up married to Winter’s father, how Princess Selene came to be, how Channary died, and what happened to cause Levana to always have to use her glamour. As fun as it was to see Winter and Selene as little girls, this book did nothing to make me feel sorry for Levana. She is a wretched person, and I look forward to seeing her demise by the end of the series.

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books and reading

Concussion

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There are a lot of topics I know nothing about. But I don’t know anything about them mostly because those topics don’t interest me at all. I was struggling with the PopSugar prompt about this very subject, so I went to my bookcase and looked around. Between my books and my husband’s, we have a wide array of topics. I found this one and thought it would be interesting enough. And if not, it was only 250 pages, so it would be easy enough to get through.

I knew was CTE was before I started and that it affects NFL players, but that was it. I really didn’t even know what the acronym stood for or how it was discovered. Once I started this book, I couldn’t put it down. It is a fantastic read. The man who first brought CTE to light is a fascinating person. Bennet Omalu is from Nigeria, struggles to fit in in America, even to understand it really, but is vastly educated and, on a whim, decided to take a closer look at the brain of Mike Webster, a former player who had been struggling with mental issues before his death from a heart attack. What Omalu found changed the NFL forever. The story goes on to illustrate other players’ autopsies, the fight Omalu had with the NFL, and how his determination kept him fighting.

Even if you don’t like football, this book is absolutely riveting. What Omalu found and the ensuing battle is something I really had no idea about, let alone the magnitude of the NFL cover-up. This quick read is definitely worth looking into.

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books and reading

Lovecraft Country

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As much as I love books, most book podcasts are rather dull and very much like listening to NPR. I need something a bit grittier when it comes to book discussion. And a friend turned me on to Books in the Freezer. And granted, these girls are very sweet and aren’t gritty themselves, but the books they discuss definitely are. They recommend some books I’ve already read and loved, so I trust their judgment. They are also really good about letting their listeners know what kind of horror the books contain. I’m not a fan of body horror, so when something includes that, I make a note not to read it. So, when I needed a book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club for the PopSugar Reading Challenge, I knew where to turn.

I’m a couple of years behind on this podcast, so I have no idea what new books they are recommending, but this is one I remember them discussing in an early episode. And with the upcoming HBO series based on the book, I wanted to give it a try. I’ve never read Lovecraft. I’ve been meaning to, but I’ve just never made it a priority. I can’t say that I missed anything in this book because I haven’t read Lovecraft, though.

The book is really a series of interrelated short stories, each featuring one member of two different families who are close friends with each other. The “main character” of each story is usually accompanied by other characters within the families, but that main person is the one affected by whatever crazy thing is happening. Set in the Jim Crow 1950s, the supernatural events of the story are not so subtly tinged with racism. The author does a great job capturing what life was like then for black people in the US.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it would be more of just one big battle against monsters. And technically it was, but the monsters didn’t turn out to be space aliens or similar. They were simply racist white people, which is much more horrifying.
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books and reading

The Library at Mount Char

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Buzz about this book has been reaching me. People I follow on Twitter have been talking about it for a while now, but I haven’t put it at the top of my list because I really didn’t know anything about it. But for a personal online book club challenge, I needed to read a book with a house on the cover, so I moved this one to the top of my list. And, boy, what a book.

I’m not sure I can begin to explain what this book is about because it’s just so crazy. Basic premise is that Carolyn is the adopted daughter of a man she only knows as “Father.” He has adopted 11 children, and all are his apprentices. Father is a god. Maybe *the* god. But that’s not exactly addressed, but it really doesn’t matter. He controls the world, all space and time, everything you know. His apprentices all study one field: death, healing, languages, animals, etc. But Father has gone missing and now someone has to take control of his Library of knowledge.

This is truly one of the most bizarre and crazy books I’ve ever read. But don’t let that statement turn you against it. I loved it. This book was engaging from the first page. Carolyn is a fantastic character, very complex. However, the minor characters are the ones who truly shine in this one. I understand this book won’t be well received by everyone, particularly ones who don’t enjoy reading about religion in this fictional context, and that’s fine. However, if you aren’t particularly bothered by that aspect, I highly recommend this one.

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books and reading

Monday’s Not Coming

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As I’ve been quarantined, I’ve been riding the stationary bike while listening to a book. I’m usually a podcast person, and I still listen to those when I get a chance, given my kids are in the house and most I listen to are highly inappropriate for kids. But I’m trying to listen to books that are on my PopSugar Reading Challenge and give myself 30 minutes each day of shutting out the world.

At some point, someone online mentioned that this was a book with a made-up language, so I used it for that prompt. The girls in the story, Claudia and Monday, do have a made-up language that only they know, but it’s not a prominent part of the book, but I’m still counting it. This book was really good but very triggering for a lot of people. And it was pretty challenging to listen to because the plot jumps in various timelines- “the before,” “the after,” “one year before the before,” making me really not able to follow *when* things were occurring. Before the before was when Claudia and Monday were friends, living their best middle school lives. The before was when Claudia returned from a summer at her grandma’s to find that Monday is seemingly missing. The after is after Claudia learns what really happened. The multiple timelines are pretty confusing. It was clear when “before the before” was because Monday was there. But the before and the after kept me confused, mostly. Ultimately, the timelines make sense and the full story of what has happened to Monday is revealed.

This powerful book isn’t for everyone. There are plenty of topics that are difficult to read about. However, I also think it’s an important one. Children, too often, go unnoticed. People turn a blind eye to their struggles and voices. So much of Monday’s situation could have been avoided if the right people had done what they could. This book is a cautionary tale, at the very least.

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books and reading

No Exit

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I’m always on the hunt for a good thriller. This one came highly recommended by my online book club. We have a book of the month that we all read, but we also read all kinds of stuff and recommend to each other. Several of them said this one was worth reading. I’m always skeptical because so many thrillers end up ridiculous, but I’m happy to report this one holds up. It’s excellent, kept me guessing, and didn’t fall into terrible tropes.

Basic premise is that college student Darby is on her way home to see her mom before she has surgery for cancer, but Darby gets snowed in at a rest stop in Colorado. There are three other people who seem nice enough, but one guy is pretty creepy. While trying to get a cell signal outside, Darby sees a small child’s hand in the back of a van. Alarm bells go off, and our story begins.

The story takes place over the course of one night, and although there are twists and turns, none of them are implausible, and Darby is a great heroine. She’s not irritating, she tries to be the hero because it’s right rather than for any kind of glory, and she is level-headed. Who Darby can trust in the rest stop becomes part of the mystery, and I was kept guessing and on the edge of my seat most of the book. The writing is tight, and the plot moves rapidly. Highly recommend this one!