Deep Storm by Lincoln Child: Book Review

Deep Storm by Lincoln Child Book Cover

2 Stars. This book really wasn’t for me for a lot of reasons that might not bother other readers. The first thing to really irritate me was the mansplaining. A female doctor is already onboard. Instead of treating her as a valued colleague, Crane marches in, assumes she doesn’t know anything about rarer diseases, and completely […]

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Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge: Book Review

Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge Book Cover

2 Stars. I just couldn’t click with this book. Kittredge does write beautifully and he writes of a way of life that seems to be disappearing. He writes fondly of the hands who worked the ranch, some of them for years and years for little more than room and board. He describes the difficult land in the salt flats of eastern […]

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Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles: Book Review

Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles Book Cover

I wanted to like this. The concept is strong and I couldn’t help comparing it to The Night Circus, another book I wanted to love. But there was way too much description, infinitely too many unanswered questions, and too little actual plot to please me. This is author Janella Angeles’s debut novel and unfortunately, it shows. She…

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Origin by Dan Brown: Book Review

Origin by Dan Brown Book Cover

I freely admit that I find Dan Brown to be a mediocre writer at best, BUT I am willing to overlook that because he grabs my attention with some new ideas and I can’t put his books down until I see where he’s going. I just couldn’t get into this particular book as much as I usually do. I noted at 22% on my Kindle that I didn’t…

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The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: Book Review

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides Book Cover

I’m in the minority here, but I was not impressed. My contrarian streak shows up in all these twisty thrillers about women, which all seem to have the word girl in their title. I gave up on Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train; this one must be better since I actually finished it. Maybe the title wasn’t as derivative so it didn’t…

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins: Book Review

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Book Cover

So. I haven’t re-read any of the original novels since they were first published and I haven’t re-watched any of the movies since their respective releases. So I’m fuzzy on those plot points. But this didn’t do much to further the broader story. Snow is a manipulative prick. We know that. All I learned in this book is that he […]

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Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Book Review

Soooooo……..yeah. I just rated Walden, one of the great American classics, two stars. That probably says more about me than it does about the book, doesn’t it? Don’t answer that. But here’s the thing–well, a few things. 1. I’m not generally an abstract ideas kind of person. I like narrative and stories and characters that Continue Reading…

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Undercover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko… Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. Continue Reading…

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