Wednesday, October 31, 2012

October Reads




Monthly - Yearly

Audiobooks:  5 - 60

Books:  3 - 12

eBooks:  1 - 18

New-to-Me Authors:  5 - 43

*Short Stories:  0 - 18

ELI THE GOOD

Author: Silas House
Genre: YA Fiction, Standalone
Published:  2009
Personal Rating: 3.5/5 (good)
Format: eBook
Yearly Count:  90


Eli the Good is a 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother, father, sister and aunt in Kentucky.  He shares his thoughts and experiences from the summer of 1976.

During that summer, Eli observes all those around him acting out their own internal feelings (regarding their personal issues) and trying to sort out his own.  The Vietnam War, cancer, rebellion, nature and relationships between friends and family all played a role in his confusion.  His thoughts on what was happening seemed realistic, and I liked Eli. He had a good heart. 

  In general, the story was good, and I'll read more by Silas House, but it didn't live up to my expectations.  It did bring back memories of that time frame by depicting clothing, books, topics of conversation, etc.  I thought that was well done.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

CALICO JOE

Author:  John Grisham
Genre:  Fiction, Standalone
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  3.25/5 (just okay +)
Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Erik Singer
Yearly Count:  89


From the Publisher:

A surprising and moving novel of fathers and sons, forgiveness and redemption, set in the world of Major League Baseball…

Whatever happened to Calico Joe?

In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.

Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…

In John Grisham’s new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it’s what happens off the field that makes CALICO JOE a classic.

Even though I don't find all of Grisham's books to be stellar reads, I do define them as comfort reads.  He has a flowing style that reads easily, and Calico Joe was no different.  It was a short novel of a father and son laced with lots of baseball.  If I were more of a baseball fan, I know I would have liked it more.  Even with the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, I still can't muster up enough excitement to watch a full game.  The game is just too slow, and I HATE the spitting.  Anyway, my feelings for baseball didn't help with this read, but I couldn't pass up a Grisham book.  The story was still somewhat interesting.  

I received Grisham's latest titled The Racketeer in the mail today, and I'm really looking forward to it.





My thanks go to Doubleday and Shelf Awareness for providing me with the ARC.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

STALKING SUSAN

Author:  Julie Kramer
Genre:  Mystery, Riley Spartz Series #1
Published:  2008
Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)
Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/
Bernadette Dunne
Yearly Count:  88


Riley Spartz is a TV reporter who gets tips from retired police officer, Nick Garnett.  This time around Riley finds herself investigating decade old cases regarding murdered women named Susan.

I stumbled upon this series as I was browsing Amazon books and discovered that my library had the audio version, so I decided to give it a try.  It didn't have much suspense or intriguing characters, but it still was a good audioread by giving us an inside peak into the world of a TV reporter.  As in other books I have encountered, Riley and Nick play a game with movie lines - guessing the movie and year of the quoted one-liners.  The game didn't woo me, but I can see how others might get a kick out of it.  Ultimately, I thought it was a good debut (there are 5 in the series now) and plan to listen to more.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A WALK ACROSS THE SUN

Author:  Corban Addison
Genre:  Fiction, Standalone
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)
Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/
Soneela Nankani
Yearly Count:  87


After a tsunami washes away Ahalya and her sister Sita's town, along with their immediate family members, the teen sisters set out to reach extended family.  They are immediately abducted and sold into child trafficking.  Needing a change, lawyer Thomas Clarke embarks on a sabbatical working in India to fight against trafficking.  He becomes aware of Ahalya and Sita's case.      

While this was a deeply troubling and important topic to expose, I wasn't as engrossed or intrigued because of its predictability.  Also, I didn't connect to the sisters.  I felt for their predicament, but it wasn't heartfelt like I have experienced when reading other books on this topic.  It was still a good audioread, though.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

THE EXCEPTIONS

Author:  David Cristofano
Genre:  Fiction,
Remake of First Book (new perspective)
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)
Format:  Book
Yearly Count:  86


From the Jacket Cover:

No loose ends.  It's the Bovaro family motto.  As part of the Bovaro clan, one of the most powerful and respected families in organized crime, Jonathan knows what he must do:  take out Melody Grace McCartney, the woman whose testimony can lock up his father and disgrace his entire family.  The only problem:  he can't bring himself to do it.

Had Jonathan kept his silence, Melody and her parents would never have been identified and lured into the Witness Protection Program, able to run but never to hide.  So he keeps her safe the only way he knows how--by vowing to clean up his own mess while acting as her shield.

But as he watches her take on another new identity in yet another new town, becoming a beautiful but broken woman, Jonathan can't get her out of his mind . . . or his heart. From the streets of Little Italy to a refuge that promises a fresh start, Jonathan will be forced to choose between the life he's always known, the destiny his family has carved out for him, and a future unlike anything he's ever imagined.


I thoroughly enjoyed The Girl She Used To Be (4.25/5) and looked forward to more by David Cristofano. Unfortunately, a remake of his first book was not what I had in mind. So, in general, this was not a good fit for me because I am not a re-reader.  That being said, I still enjoyed the book, but not nearly as much as I would have if it were a first read.

This book gave a more detailed version of their lives and a solid ending which I appreciated, but I didn't like that it was a whopping 465 pages!  So, being a remake and a chunkster created negative feelings in me, but the storyline was still a very good one.   






My thanks go to Julie from Grand Central Publishing for sending me the book.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

COLD QUIET COUNTRY



My thoughts will be posted around November 13 (publishing date).

(This post is just a place holder.)

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

WONDER

Author:  R. J. Palacio
Genre:   Young Reader, Standalone
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  4/5 (very good)
Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/
Steele, Podehl & Rudd
Yearly Count:  84


August (Auggie) goes to school for the first time and enters the 5th grade.  He has been home-schooled due to hospital stays and healing from facial surgeries.  Life takes a drastic change once he enters the building.

This story was written with heart and realism.  I really liked Auggie and his family; however, I didn't appreciate the several changes in point-of-view throughout the book, because it made it feel redundant and predictable. However, the other views gave a well-rounded perspective of the lives affected by Auggie's presence (including Auggie himself) and for a children's book that may have been necessary.  This was a very good book with a very important message.


Saturday, October 06, 2012

THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY

Author:  Louise Penny
Genre:  Mystery, Three Pines Series #8
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  2.5/5 (eh)
Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Ralph Cosham
Yearly Count:  83


A monastery of 24 monks is hidden deep in the woods of Quebec.  Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir are admitted into the sacred grounds to solve the murder of the monastery's choir director.   

The Beautiful Mystery, aka The Boring Mystery, was written with sophistication, but was incredibly slow and uneventful.  I did not care about the monastery or the details of the Gregorian chants, and sadly, that was pretty much the only focus.  This was a big disappointment for me.  Hopefully the next book in the series will reunite us with all the interesting characters from the Three Pines village, because they were sorely missed.



OFF THE GRID

Author:  P.J. Tracy
Genre:  Mystery, Monkeewrench Crew #6
Published:  2012
Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)
Format:  Book
Yearly Count:  82


From the ARC Back Cover:

The Monkeewrench crew is back--and better than ever--in this electrifying new thriller.

On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith.  A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen0year0old girl is found in a vacant lot, her throat slashed.  Later that morning, two young men are found in their home several blocks away, killed execution style.  The next morning, three more men are found savagely murdered int he same neighborhood.

As Minneapolis Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the three crimes, they discover that there have been similar murders in other cities around the United States.  Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing to a suspect who shocks them to the core, and a motive is uncovered that puts the entire Midwest on high alert and Monkeewrench in the direct line of fire.  Before it's all over, Grace and her partners, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, find themselves in the middle of a shocking collision of violence on a remote northern Minnesota Indian reservation, fighting for their lives.

I felt like I was on a small, reading-roller-coaster with this edition of the Monkeewrench crew.  Sometimes I was on a high with intrigue and other times I was on a low, because the high wasn't maintained.  My thought kept falling back to "Why?" in several situations regarding the climax, and those whys were never answered.

The characters themselves were not themselves either.  I did see glimpses of them, but overall it just wasn't the Monkeewrench crew I have known for years.  Despite all of that, I enjoyed it (sometimes a lot!), but hope for more of the past in the future.






My thanks go to Putnam Books and LibraryThing for sending me the ARC.