Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

At twenty-one, Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Natty, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced Catholic mother and Jewish father. She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed robber and her son.

Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.

Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, in a funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness,; about a virgin birth, a sacrifice, and a resurrection; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a novel about discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need.

I didn’t really understand what this book was trying to be. Although it does have romantic elements, the story is too strange to really be considered a romance. I think that the author tried to do too many things, mixing too many genres at once.

It’s hard to create a believable love story with a character like William, one of the protagonists. He is supposed to have Asperger’s syndrome, but it is not a well developed aspect of his character. He was a very “blah” character. Even when we were in his head, I was bored. It would have been much more interesting to have been in the other male protagonist’s mind, Walcott’s. Instead we jump from Shandi, who is another dull headspace, to William’s.

The plot starts off strong, with the big, robbery scene right at the beginning, but doesn’t manage to  keep that kind of pace. There is too much pining and whining throughout the rest of the novel to truly be interesting.

I am sure there are better romance novels out there.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From The October Country by Ray Bradbury

"Two customers had passed through an hour before. Those two lonely people were now in the roller coaster, screaming murderously as it plummeted down the blazing night, around one emptiness after another."

pg. 3

Musings Monday

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!


I just finished reading Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson. It wasn't one of my favorites this year. The story was convoluted and had no real point. It misguides the reader, not in a clever, unreliable-narrator kind of way, but more like the author wasn't too sure what was going to happen either. My review will be up later today or tomorrow.

Hunted by Elizabeth Heiter

FBI rising star, criminal profiler Evelyn Baine, knows how to think like a serial killer. But she's never chased anyone like the Bakersville Burier, who hunts young women and displays them, half-buried, deep in the woods. As the body count climbs, Evelyn's relentless pursuit of the killer puts her career - and her life - at risk. And the evil lurking in the Burier's mind may be more than even she can unravel. 

Terror is closer than she thinks.

The Bakersville Burier knows he's got an FBI profiler on his trail. He knows who she is and where to find her. And he's biding his time, because he's planned a special punishment for Evelyn. She may have tracked other killers, but he vows to make this her last chase. This time it's her turn to be hunted!

This thriller had some predictable moments that were not quite balanced out by even the most quick-paced scenes.

What I felt while reading is a lack of understanding as to why it was published. It brought no real challenge to the thriller field; it dealt with serial killers in dull, predictable ways; in short, I brought nothing new to the genre, at all. Yes, some of the scenes were written with a good sense of pacing, but it wasn’t enough to make this an actual thriller.

The protagonist is the usual kind: someone who is damaged, bordering on antisocial, and someone who is actually quite bland when it comes down to it. She did not have enough personality, I felt, to carry the whole book. The novel does jump viewpoints in strange ways and at strange moments. The viewpoints are not evenly written and we don’t get a real feel for any of the other characters, except for the protagonist, since we don’t get to see things from their perspective too much. The pages written from the serial killer’s POV felt like they could have been easily cut out.

All in all, this was a bland addition to an overpopulated genre, so I recommend you pick up another one.

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell


"Betty, a New Caledonian crow, peers briefly into a tall, clear, vertical tube at the small basket of food inside it and pecks quickly at the plastic to test if she can break through it. Her brain is lit with electrical and chemical energy as she contemplates the puzzle of reaching the treats."

pg. 1

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!


I recently started reading Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John M. Marzluff, Tony Angell. Anyone who knows me, knows I love birds and crows in particular. I feed three crows near my house every morning and they have come to recognize me and come when I call them, so I wanted to learn more about these wonderful and highly intelligent animals. So far, the book is completely fascinating.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

This is the sequel to The Shining, and, as such, I had to push this one to the front of the reading line. Although it wasn’t as good as the first book, it still had many classic King moments.

The book follows Dan, who is the little Danny Torrance, all grown up now. We see as he struggles to fight off his alcoholism and his traumas that stem from his experiences at the Overlook Hotel. The book’s pacing is as great as all of King’s books, keeping the tension as taut as possible for as long as possible. There are many references to The Shining, so you do have to read that one before picking this one up, but it really is its own story.

Dan is a great character, flawed and trailing plenty of demons, literally and metaphorically, and the reader can’t help but root for him at all times. Abra is another interesting character, though I do wish we’d have gotten a bit about her. She doesn’t leave as strong an impression on us as some of the other characters.

The showdown scene is good, but it is not as strong as some of King’s other climactic moments. It feels just a bit rushed, which is not his usual way of writing these scenes. There are some very fun moments, though, all the way throughout the novel and if you love The Shining, you definitely should pick this one up.

 

 

 

Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent

Norah Vincent's New York Times bestselling book, Self-Made Man, ended on a harrowing note. Suffering from severe depression after her eighteen months living disguised as a man, Vincent felt she was a danger to herself. On the advice of her psychologist she committed herself to a mental institution. Out of this raw and overwhelming experience came the idea for her next book. She decided to get healthy and to study the effect of treatment on the depressed and insane "in the bin," as she calls it.

Vincent's journey takes her from a big city hospital to a facility in the Midwest and finally to an upscale retreat down south, as she analyzes the impact of institutionalization on the unwell, the tyranny of drugs-as-treatment, and the dysfunctional dynamic between caregivers and patients. Vincent applies brilliant insight as she exposes her personal struggle with depression and explores the range of people, caregivers, and methodologies that guide these strange, often scary, and bizarre environments.

This was an interesting look into the mental health field, mainly the psychiatric hospitals and how they treat their patients. It started out strongly, but somehow, in the middle, the book lost some of its steam.

The author is an investigative journalist, someone who immersed herself into the subject she’s researching, so she decided to commit herself to three different psychiatric centers, a public one, a private one, and one that was known for its radical treatments. As I said, the first sections, especially the one about the public hospital, are very interesting, painting a start picture of the way the mental health industry works. By the time we get to the third center, however, the narrative has changed completely from a journalistic one to a highly personal one. It wasn’t as effective as I assume the author intended. The reader is not necessarily interested in the author’s own psychological issues, but in the way the centers are run, and, since the pace slows dramatically once she begins to talk about her own depression issues, it can be tough to stay interested.

I really wanted this book to be more interesting. I would have preferred more facts and statistics about the centers she attended instead of the personal introspection. The first part is interesting, though, so if you are looking for something a bit different to read, then you might want to give it a try.

 

 

 

 

Booking Through Thursday

Which is better (or preferred) … stories with multiple character points of view? Or stories that stick to just one or two at most? And, why?

It would have to depend on the kind of story. Most of the time, I prefer single points of views, since I like getting into one particular character's head. Other times, there is just no way of telling the story correctly without allowing for many POVs. Take most, if not all, of Stephen King's novels. The reader would miss out on so much if he had just stuck to one or two POV. So it really depends on the kind of story the author is trying to tell.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

"There came a time when you realized that moving on was pointless. That you took yourself with you wherever you went.”

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
-
I started reading Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson. It's okay so far, not anything out of the ordinary. It is a little too lovey-dovey for my taste, since I'm not a big romance person, but it is still interesting enough to keep reading.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

"It was warm-in Florida it almost always was- but he did not like that sound, and supposed he never would. It reminded him of the Overlook, where the defective boiler had been the very least of the dangers."

pg. 4

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I had to give in to temptation. I started reading Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Even though I have about six billion books ahead of that one, it cur right to the front of the line, because, well, it's The Shining's sequel, and there's no chance anything could compete with it for my attention. So far, it is as awesome as I expected it to be.

Follow Friday

What book (or TV show or movie) have you not read that seemingly everyone else has?


Twilight. I saw the first movie and hated it, so I've stayed away from the books and the rest of the movies. There's better stuff to read out there, so I don't think I'm missing anything crucial. Same goes for Fifty Shades of Grey.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

This is an interesting story that takes place in a location we don’t often read about: Iceland. I’d heard man great things about this novel, and while some parts of it didn’t necessarily seem needed, the overall quality of the novel is pretty high.

What I feel hurt this novel more than anything is the potpourri of historical correspondences the author added throughout the book. I understand that, since it is based on a historical event and a historical character, she wanted to infuse as much authenticity into the writing as possible, but they don’t really add anything to the plot itself, since we learn everything the letters say in other scenes. It felt more like a gimmick than anything else.

Something I did enjoy about the novel, however, was the way that the author let us know exactly what was going to happen to Agnes, the protagonist, from the first few pages and then followed through with it. We knew she was going to be executed and still, we expected a miracle to save her. It recreates a bit of what anyone in that situation would be experiencing: the hope of salvation.

There are some lovely moments in the writing, with the author creating beautiful imagery and atmosphere. I just felt that she took more effort to give us historical accuracy than trying to get us to understand the characters better.

 

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin by Norah Vincent

"I never finished the research. Instead it was cut short by a depressive breakdown that scared me enough to convince me that it would be better both for me and for those around me if I didn't go on walking the streets looking for someone to hurt me."

pg. 3