Author: ekkarn

Secondhand Souls – Christopher Moore Grim Reaper #2

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Christopher Moore may be very near the top of my list of authors that make me laugh out loud when I read their books!! His latest book Secondhand Souls certainly did that in many places! Secondhand Souls is the second book in the Grim Reaper series, that feature Charlie Asher and his daughter Sophie and a crazy cast of characters.

From Goodreads.com…..

In San Francisco, the souls of the dead are mysteriously disappearing—and you know that can’t be good—in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore’s delightfully funny sequel to A Dirty Job.

Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone—or something—is stealing them and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death Merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else. He’s trapped in the body of a fourteen-inch-tall “meat” waiting for his Buddhist nun girlfriend, Audrey, to find him a suitable new body to play host. Read More

I really haven’t been able to get into Moore;’s last few books, i.e. The Serpent of Venice and Sacre Bleu, so I was really happy when I saw this book.

I slipped very easily into Secondhand Souls and all the old friends and fiends from the first Grim Reaper book  A Dirty Job. Wow – I just looked back and saw that I read  A Dirty Job back in 2006. I knew it had been a while, but I didn’t think it has been almost ten years since I read the book! I guess that’s why I didn’t remember all the details of the book!!

The Bottom Line

Anyway, the bottom line is that Secondhand Souls is another winner from the warped mind of Christopher Moore. It must be crazy to live with the man! So Check it Out! And I guess I really do have to check out the two previously mentioned books along with Fool that is on my TBR shelves!!

Secondhand Souls was the 45th book that I have read in 2015. That was the number of books that I  had set as my goal in the 2015 Goodreads Challenge. Yeah Me!! I still have 6 more books to read to reach that lofty goal I set back in January of 51 books for 2015!

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook Fan Page
Goodreads
Amazon

 

Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson

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Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson – Pen/Faulkner Award Winner

Snow Falling on Cedars is kinda’ the type of books I read, but well not quite. While the basic storyline is the murder trial of Kabuo Miyamoto there’s a lot more that to it that sets this Pen/Faulkner Award winning novel apart from a typical book in the mystery genre. The novel provides not only a great trial mystery that keeps you guessing until the end of the book, but it provides a glimpse into the lives of Japanese-Americans during World War II and beyond.

The setting Snow Falling in Cedars is San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound in the state of Washington state. The island is the home of a large Japanese population Kabuo and his family arrived on the island in the early 1900s, working first in the mill and then in the island’s strawberry fields They worked hard and were prospering. In the early part of 1942, Kabuo’s father Zenhichi approached Carl Heine,Sr, owner of the farm where they worked to see if he could purchase seven acres of land. Heine agreed and Zenhichi started making payments. Then came December 7th and the lives of the Japanese-Americans on the island were turned upside down, Soon notice was a given that they immediately had to pack up their world. They were being sent to an interment camp called Manzanar.

Hatsue Imada’s life was altered also, for years she had been seeing the son of the publisher of the town’s paper Ishmael Chambers. They would meet each afternoon in the hollow of an old cedar tree. In December of 1942,  she had to make a choice between her Japanese heritage or her love, knowing that her mother could never accept Ishmael, she eventually chose her culture and married Kabuo. Now she was standing by his side at his murder trial, a trial that Ishmael has to cover for his newspaper!!

By 1954, Kabuo was a fisherman who ached to get back the land that his father wanted to buy from Carl Heine, Sr. But when Carl Heine, Jr.now also a fisherman is found dead Kabuo in the waters where Kabuo was fishing. Kabuo becomes a prime suspect for the murder. Snow Falling on Cedars is much more than a murder mystery, as it addresses beautifully the tragedy that befell the Japanese residents of San Piedro Island.

From the Los Angeles Times….

“Haunting… A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper.”  

As I was reading Snow Falling on Cedars, I thought about my own family. My father’s family was from Germany. His mother Charlotte Meyer was born in Dresden in 1903 and his father’s father came from Germany in 1882. Both Charlotte and her father Herman Meyer became  US citizens in the early 1940s, for obvious reasons. What struck me was that while Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to interment camps nothing similar happened to German-Americans! Again the reason is simple German-Americans look like everyone else!! What could have happened of my mother who was English/Irish wasn’t allowed to date a German boy!  Looking Japanese was one of the things that Kabuo had to fight, during his trial. He had to fight not only the evidence but also the jury’s prejudices!

Bottom Line: Snow Falling on Cedars is one of those remarkable books that works on so many levels as a mystery, a love story and a history lesson all wrapped up into one! I loved all of the characters and each level of the book. A few days after finishing the book I found Ed King another of David Gutterson’s books at the Dollar Tree and it now sits on my TBR shelves!! It is certainly a 4 to 5 star okay 4.5 star book for me!!

Book 43 for 2015!

Reading Challenge Update: October 2015!

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Reading Challenge October Update

So now I’ve caught up on my running,(well, actually if you consider today’s run I’m not caught up with runs right now!), it’s time to catch up on my reading. Over the last couple of weeks I have finished two books! The first is the Pen/Faulkner winning Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, and then I finished Gracie: A Love Story written by her partner and husband George Burns!

They were the 43rd and 44th books that I have finished this year!! That leaves only 7 more to reach what I thought was a lofty goal of 51 books for the year!!

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 1 5 6 11 55%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 7 18 25 23 109%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2 2 4 5 80%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 3 4 7 12 58%
No Reading Challenge 1 1 2 0 100%
Totals 13 44 51 86%
2015 TBR Pile Challenge 13 25 52%

Proposed November Reading Challenge Books

So I need one more historical fiction read to meet that reading challenge and five each to meet the non-fiction and Science Fiction challenges. Hum that makes eleven books and I don’t think that is happening! The one historical fiction is doable and then maybe three each from the other challenges that would get me to my goal of 51! Additionally, if I were to find all of those books on my to be read (TBR) shelves, well that would get me to 80% of my TBR Challenge goal which would be pretty good!! So excuse me while I look over my shelves for three nonfiction, three science fiction books and one historical fiction book on my TBR shelves!!

Ok so here’s a list of potential November reads.

Currently Reading Challenge From
Dangerously Funny – David Bianculli Nonfiction TBR Pile
A Conspiracy of Paper– David Liss Historical Fiction TBR Pile
Stranger – Simon Clark Science Fiction TBR Pile
Secondhand Souls – Christopher Moore Fantasy Library

Reading the story of Gracie Allen reminded me about how much I liked reading about folks like The Marx Brothers, George S Kaufman and other comedic actors and writers. So while I was reading the book I was thinking about Dangerously Funny the story about The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, one of my favorites!! Seems like a good time to read their story!

Likewise, reading the Richard Laymon book inspired me to pick up Simon Clark’s Stranger which I started yesterday, so far it;s pretty good!

Secondhand Souls was among the books I was supposed to read in October and it’s not due back at the library until the middle of next month so I still have time to read it!! A Conspiracy of Paper was a proposed read a few months ago, I’ll try once more to get into it!!

So there are my proposed November reads. I’ll try to write the reviews for Gracie and Snow Falling on Cedars tomorrow!! I will also try to write about today’s run!

George Burn’s in Gracie: A Love Story describes how one of his favorite movies to make was Damsel in Distress. In the movie, George and Gracie had to tap dance with Fred Astaire! Getting ready for the movie George remembered an old vaudeville act that danced with whisk brooms. George brought one of the dancers to Hollywood to teach he and Gracie the dance. They taught the dance to Astaire and he put it in the movie!! Here they are performing the dance!! And with that I’ll  say – “Good Night, Ed!”

Update:Two Runs, Music From Armik and Stubblefield!

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The Guitars of Jim Stubblefield and Armik Power Two Runs!

The Run – Sunday October 25, 2015

So the last two runs I need to catch you up on are from Sunday and Tuesday of this week. I didn’t get to run on Sunday until almost five o’clock and since I knew the sun would be setting a little after six o’clock and I was a little tired I decided not to run a full 10 K! The first three miles of the run were great the splits were: Mile 1 – 10:00/mile. Mile 2 10:07 /mile Mile 3 10:09 / mile. I started to struggle a little on mile four with the pace dropping to 10:14 /mile. Then the bottom fell out on mile 5 with the pace dropping to 10:42 / mile. Since my overall time was close to an hour I decided that was when I would stop!. The overall distance was 5.80 miles at an average pace of 10:20 /mile. Which is really good! The other good thing was my maximum heart rate on the run was 152 beats per minute (bmp) and the average was 148 bmp.

The Soundtrack – Encantato – Jim Stubblefield

The soundtrack for that run was Jim Stubblefield’s latest release Encantato. The opening track was a great way to start a run! You can read more about the album here.

The Run – Tuesday – October 27, 2015

Tuesday’s run was not the fastest of the year, I just missed going under 40 minutes over my flat Creek Out and Back course, but it may have been one of my most consistent runs. Th splits were 10:07, 10:03, 10:08 and 10:01 /mile!! The good thing was that it was actually a fairly comfortable run with an average heart rate of 142 beats per minute!!

So  overall after 3 months of running I am training fairly comfortably at  a 10 minute per mile pace, which I actually didn’t think I could do back when I started in August!! Now the trick will be to keep it going through the winter! See,. I hate running in the dark! I don’t feel comfortable at all if it’s not the cars, it’s the street and the sidewalks. Even with a vest and a headlamp or flashlight I’m still afraid of falling!! But now I can run in the afternoons (see I don’t like the morning cold either!) either on the days I’m off or the days I work in the mornings!

The Soundtrack:: La Vida – Armik

Armik (born Armik Dashchi) is an Iranian-Armenian world fusion flamenco and Spanish guitarist and composer. I have listened to his music before and enjoyed his playing immensely!!His music interweaves flamenco and classical guitar with Latin and jazz influences. He is one of the top virtuosos of the Nuevo Flamenco genre,. Armik has been among Billboard Magazine’s Top Ten New Age Artists  in  2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

La Vida is Armik’s 27th studio album was released on September 25 and already spent considerable time on Billboard’s Top 10 New Age Chart, climbing as high as No 2! From his website……

With LA VIDA, Armik’s 27th studio album, he offers a new musical calling card that reveals his stunning guitar virtuosity and the magical percussive layers of sound and soul of the Nuevo Flamenco genre. It is a testament to the continued relevance of Nuevo Flamenco sound that Armik’s global fans revere around the world. You will have the most extraordinary listening experience as Armik fuses the sounds of his flamenco guitar with different musical genres such as Latin jazz, and rumba. Read More

So Check out both Armik and Jim Stubblefield!! Here’s is the title track from Armik’s La Vida

No Sanctuary – Richard Laymon

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Book 42 of 2015 – No Sanctuary – Richard Laymon a little less than expected….

As I was sitting around over the weekend not feeling well, I spent my time in typical fashion reading!! Did I read any of the three books that I picked up at the library on Saturday? Of course not! I read some in Gracie: A Love Story and then started No Sanctuary by Richard Laymon. I am not sure where I got the book but it has been on my TBR shelves for a long while now. Anyway, on Saturday when I was moving things around I saw the back of the book and read the following

“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat” – Stephen King and

“One of horror’s rarest talents” – Publishers Weekly….

So by never reading a Richard Laymon novels I’ve missed the treat of reading one of horror’s rarest talents, eh? Ok I’ll bite and I did and this afternoon No Sanctuary became the 42nd book that I’ve read in 2015! Here’s a little background on Richard Laymon for me and you. From Wikipedia Richard Laymon….

was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre. Richard Laymon died in 2001 of a massive heart attack Read More

Since I don’t read a lot of horror books I had to look up what splatterpunk was….

Splatterpunk was a movement within horror fiction in the 1980s, distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence and “hyperintensive horror with no limits.”[1][2][3] The term was coined in 1986 by David J. Schow at the Twelfth World Fantasy Convention in Providence, Rhode Island. Splatterpunk is regarded as a revolt against the “traditional, meekly suggestive horror story”.[4] Splatterpunk has been defined as a “literary genre characterised by graphically described scenes of an extremely gory nature.” Read More

Well I certainly think that No Sanctuary fits in the splatterpunk subgenre, especially the end!

But back to  No Sanctuary. There are two storylines running through the book. The first storyline follows Rick and Bert (Bertha) on a camping trip in the remote mountains of California. The other involves Gilliam O’Neill whose addiction is breaking into houses while the owners are away and making herself at home.  What could go wrong in the lives of the protagonists! Plenty!

First, Rick and Bert meet up with three young men on the trail. Rick is convinced that the three are out for one thing and that is to rape and kill his woman and his gory visions confirm his suspicions and create a deadly paranoia! While Gillian discovers that she is in the home of a serial killer!! As each storyline develops it ‘s obvious that at some point the two will collide and there will probably be some blood spilled!!

Bottom line: For me No Sanctuary: was a likable book but not a great book. While both storylines finally meshed,  I thought that there would be some kind of connection between the two other than intersecting in the same woods! Also  thought that there were a couple of portions of the book that I thought could have been eliminated. After reading reviews of the book at Amazon, I see that No Sanctuary may not be Laymon’s best work. So I may read one of his more highly recommended novels. Hell he wrote over thirty of them….let’e see ….. again from Wikipedia….

Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by Science Fiction Chronicle, and both Flesh and Funland were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, as was his non-fiction work A Writer’s Tale. He won this award posthumously in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show.

Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Reading Challenge Update for Mid-October!

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2015 Reading Challenge 41 books down 10 more to go!!

So as I have said many times October has been a busy month especially the last two weeks. But in those two weeks I have finished two books first Broken Promise from Linwood Barclay and most recently Silent Creed from Alex Kava. So where does that put me on my various reading challenges. Well, the addition of these two books have brought the total number of books I’ve read to 41 which is 80% of my goal total of 51 books. Since the goal of 51 books was very lofty, I’m really happy with where I am right now!! So right now I can achieve my goal with 2 more books this month and 4 in each of the following months. But with so much competing with my time over the next few month i.e Eagles football, Sixers basketball and Flyers hockey plus the World Series I don’t know if I’ll reach my goal!! Anyway, here’s a tabulation of my reads!!

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 5 5 11 45%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 7 17 25 23 109%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 2 3 5 60%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 3 4 7 12 58%
No Reading Challenge 0 1 1 0 100%
Totals 11 41 51 80%

This afternoon I picked out several books to read, then I made the mistake of going to the library and now I have three different books to put into the mix!! So throughout the year I have tried to list five book per month that I planned to read. I know that right now I’m in the middle of the month, but here’ the current stack of five!!

I have been reading Jonathan Kozol‘s Amazing Grace and I will continue to read that book. The other night  I picked up George Burn’s Gracie A Love Story and started reading and I love the books, it’s full of typical George Burns humor and a wonderful biography of their life together. Right now I’m about a third of the way through the book. They are just breaking into radio!! Both of these books count towards my nonfiction reading challenge.

The three books that I picked up at the library are ……

Signal - Patrick Lee Reading Challenge BookSignal – Patrick Lee’s second installment in his Sam Dryden series. I love Patrick Lee’s Breach trilogy and the first Dryden novel Runner so I can’t wait to get lost in this adventure!!

 

Spider Woman's DaughterThrough the 80s and 90s Tony Hillerman‘s books were another staple of my reading. I loved Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn so I was intrigued when I saw that his daughter Anne Hillerman had released a new Jim Chee – Joe Leaphorn mystery Spider Woman’s Daughter  This afternoon I spotted Rock with Wings book 2 from Anne and picked it up. Tonight I thought that I should really read Spider Woman’s Daughter first so I requested that book from the library. Since there were no other holds it shouldn’t be long before I get the book. Overall that shouldn’t be a problem since I have lots of other books to read!!

Secondhand SoulsThe last book of the fab five is Secondhand Souls the new release from Christopher Moore. I’ve had a hard time getting into the last few books that Moore has written like Fool and The Serpent of Venice, but I loved his earlier book. Secondhand Souls is a sequel to one of them A Dirty Job!  so Secondhand Souls should be a good one!!

 

Silent Creed – Alex Kava

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Silent Creed – Ryder Creed #2 – Alex Kava

In the middle of all the chaos last week, I still managed to finish my second book of October — Silent Creed by Alex Kava. It helped that this one was a real page-turner!

This is the second novel featuring K9 handler Ryder Creed, and once again he teams up with FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell. Their first pairing was in Breaking Creed, and it’s been a thrill watching this partnership evolve — Maggie has been one of my favorite characters through eleven thrillers.

The Story

Ryder and Maggie are both called to a government research facility in Haywood County, North Carolina, after torrential rains trigger a massive landslide. Creed is tasked with searching for survivors, but when one of the recovered bodies turns out to be a scientist who was shot, Maggie is brought in to investigate.

Under perilous conditions — from unstable terrain to people desperate to keep their crimes hidden — Maggie and Ryder soon find themselves fighting for their lives.

Real-Life Inspiration

Alex Kava is a self-described news junkie, and she weaves real-world events into her novels. In Silent Creed, she draws from actual search-and-rescue deployments by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, whose teams have responded to disasters around the world — from the 2015 Nepal earthquake to the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado.

Kava also incorporates fascinating historical facts, including U.S. government testing on unsuspecting soldiers, citizens, and even schoolchildren during the 1950s and ’60s. These details add depth and intrigue to the story.

And yes, I still have a soft spot for Grace, Ryder’s little Jack Russell Terrier — she’s as tenacious as ever.

The Bottom Line

Silent Creed delivers an engaging storyline, high stakes, and great characters. The chemistry between Maggie and Ryder continues to intensify, adding another layer to the action and suspense.

If you haven’t yet met Ryder and Maggie, you can start here, but I recommend beginning with Breaking Creed to get the full impact of their partnership. And if you just want to stick with Maggie, her solo series is well worth exploring — she’s faced some of the most dangerous criminals (and situations) in the genre.

Book 41 of 2015

A Post-Birthday Trip to the Library Book Sale!!

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Five Treasures Found at the Library Book Sale

So October is really zipping by, seems like it was just my birthday (Oct 1), I guess that’s what happens when you’re busy. Anyway, the Cinnaminson Branch of the Burlington County Library had their fall book sale Oct 1-3rd and well since I  needed to take some books back and pickup a book that I had put on hold, I begrudgingly visited the used book sale. Yeah right!

I have discovered that the best way to control my spending at these book sales is to go with a set amount of money to spend! For this sale I had ten dollars to spend. Here’s how I spent my money…..

Think of a Number Book Sale BookFirst up was John Verdon’s Think of a Numb3r.(Dave Gurney #1). From Goodreads….

An extraordinary fiction debut, Think of a Number is an exquisitely plotted novel of suspense that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates, forcing its deeply troubled characters to moments of startling self-revelation Read More

I have seen this book  before, but for some reason I have never picked it up. Now is the time!!

 

Next came Last to Die from Tess Gerritsen. I have loved Tess Gerritsen’s Jane Rizzoli since The Surgeon for some reason I have put off reading Gerritsen’s latest book and every time I finish one of them I shake my head and question – why??

The Death Relic Chris KuzneskiBooks from two other authors whose books I have enjoyed and yet don’t seem to read often enough caught my eye. First, The Death Relic from Chris Kuzneski and then Gregg Hurwitz‘s  You’re Next.

When Maria Pelati’s research team disappears in Mexico, Jonathon Payne and David Jones embark on a perilous mission to find the missing archaeologists. The duo quickly finds a link between the group’s work and its recent disappearance. Following the clues left behind, their pair try to solve one of the darkest mysteries of the new world. More

Kuzneski’s books always blend history and action. The Death Relic is book #7 of the Jonathon Payne and David Jones series. I have read books #2 and # 4) in the series and enjoyed them so I know I’ll enjoy The Death Relic!!

Gregg Hurwitz’s You’re Next is a stand alone thriller. I hope that this one is as good as the last Hurwitz novel I read Tell No Lies which was really, really good!

Every Day David LevithanThe final book that I bought was every day by David Levithan

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon Read More

every day is not a book that I would typically read but it sounds really interesting and I’ve been going to get the book from the library for a long time!!

So the final tally at the book sale was two hard backs the first two books and three trade size paperbacks for a whopping $9.00!! Now I just have to find the time to read them all!!

 

Broken Promise – Linwood Barclay

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Broken Promise – Linwood Barclay (Promise Falls #1)

 

In Broken Promise, the latest from Linwood Barclay, the author returns to the town of Promise Falls, New York and pens another terrific thriller. Promise Falls was the setting for two of Barclay’s previous books, Never Look Away and Too Close to Home. Many familiar character populate Broken Promise including: Police Detective Barry Duckworth, Landscaper Eddie Cutter and his son Derek and the main protagonist David Harwood. Harwood and his family wife Jan and son Ethan were the main characters in Never Look Away. Broken Promise picks up David’s life several years after Never Look Back,  David and Ethan have returned to Promise Falls where David has returned to his former job as a reporter for the town newspaper, only to have the newspaper shut down on his first day of work! His only option is to move back in with mom and dad! One day his mom asks David to look in on his cousin Marla. Marla is having a hard time after losing a baby about ten months prior.When David arrives at Marla’s he notices a spot of blood on the front door and Marla is caring for a ten-month old baby, that she says an “Angel” delivered to her door!

When the mother of the baby is found brutally murdered, Marla becomes the prime suspect! Soon David is asked to find out anything he can to help prove that Marla is innocent. But as David digs deeper, solving the crime may rip his family apart!!

Typically, in a Linwood Barclay’s book one ordinary person is put in an extraordinary situation and that happens in Broken Promise as David sets out to discover how Marla ended up with the baby and who really killed the baby’s mother.But along with the mystery surrounding Marla and the murder there are other extraordinary events happening in Promise Falls; including the slaughter of 23 squirrels, attacks on the local college campus and a message painted on mannequins placed on the ferris wheel of an abandoned amusement park. All these events seem to indicate that maybe Promise Falls is a broken town!

At Goodreads Broken Promise is labeled as (Promise Falls #1) and certainly there were enough questions to be answered at the  end of Broken Promise to provided a storyline for Promise Falls #2 Far From True, which will be released in March of 2016. I have enjoyed all of Barclay’s standalone books, but there is something special about a book series and I am certainly looking forward to spending more time with the residents of Promise Falls!! I have a pretty good idea of who may be responsible for several of the happenings, but as for the killer, I haven’t a clue!! I can’t wait until March!!

Bottom-Line: Broken Promise is a four and a half star book! I can certainly be enjoyed without reading the two other books mentioned, but each of those books were outstanding reads and certainly stand on their own!! So check them all out!!!!

Book 40 of 2015

The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes

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The Shining Girls Didn’t Shine for me! (Book 39 for 2015)

So – have you ever zipped through a book, enjoyed it, and yet felt that you never really connected with the book? That may be the best way to describe how I feel about The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. It obviously wasn’t how Tana French felt about the book, on the cover of the book French’s quote reads…..

“Utterly original, beautifully written, and I  must say, it creeped the holy bejesus out of me. This is something special” 

I originally discovered this book in a post titled 10 Novels That Will Scare The Hell Out Of You written by Julie Buntin for The Huffington Post. When I found the book in the library I read the last quote on the back cover of the book…..

Imagine Poe and Steinbeck in a knife fight where Poe wins and writes Jack the Ripper’s version of :The Grapes of Wrath Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls is even scarier than that” Richard Kadrey author of Sandman Slim

Ok so I was prepared to be scared – I wasn’t.! The novel follows the exploits of the “time-traveling serial killer Harper Curtis, who discovers a depression-era house that opens to other times. Within the house are the names of the five “shining girls” that Harper knows he is supposed to kill. Harper jumps in and out of the lives of these girls until he discovers the right time to kill them. He is successful until the last shining girl Kirby Mazrachi survives Harper’s brutal attack! Teaming with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dan Velasquez, Kirby sets out to find and stop Harper!!

First things,first I read this book very quickly and enjoyed it, BUT I was never really scared! I also never figured out why Harper wanted to kill these women other than their names were written in his handwriting on the walls of “the house” In fact I never really connected with Harper i.e I didn’t like the character or sympathize with the character. For that matter I didn’t even sympathize with his victims. Throughout the book I kept waiting for something to happen that would connect all the killings, but that never happened!

I did kinda’ like the two other main characters in The Shining Girls Kirby and Dan. Kirby was a plucky survivor with her mind and heart set on finding and settling the score with Harper. While Dan has his heart and mind set on protecting Kirby!!

Bottomline:  I would give The Shining  Girls three stars- I found the book ok, but I certainly didn’t find it as compelling or scary as others have found the book. For me the book just lacked something – it may have been the depth of the characters – but for me The Shining Girls just didn’t shine!! Having said that I at some point try another book from Lauren Beukes like Moxyland or Zoo City

Ok so tell me why I should have loved this book!!