All hail Audible and it's ability to make running long distances be not so unpleasant. This one took a long time to finish only because an unfortunate incident involving a New York subway stair last month resulted in an avulsion fracture to the ankle, extended physical therapy, and a six week hiatus from running. So this book was a bit of a slog, but I've finally finished it. If you are an adult with a Facebook account, and eyeballs, you've probably seen something regarding this book and its recent movie adaptation. (The trailer actually looks pretty good). There was something a bit off-putting about what I thought was a emotional sabotage to the book, which is probably why I gave it three stars, despite liking it a bit more.The story follows Louisa Clarke, a 26 year old cafe worker who loses her job and ends up taking a 6-month assignment as a caregiver to quadriplegic Will Trainor. Will used to be a powerful business man, athlete, risk taker, but was hit by a motorcycle while walking to work and now suffers from almost complete paralysis of his four limbs. He's a bit of a jerk, but that has mostly to do with his circumstances.Over the course of a few weeks, Louisa and Will begin an uneasy and then comfortable friendship, after which Louisa learns that Will has decided to end his life at the end of her six-month working engagement. Louisa first quits, but then decides she will take the time to show Will what his life could be like and how full it could be.I'll leave it to you to decide (or read) if Louisa is successful or not. There is a sequel to the book called "After You" if that is any indication. Of course I cried a little during the book, and I really thought about the issues of determining how and where we live our lives. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the choices the characters make, but I understand their grief in the process. All in all a good read. As a side note, I'm quite enjoying all these Audible versions of books by English authors (The Lake House, The Girl on the Train) as the accents are entertaining.
3.5/5 Stars.
Someone left this at my house. I never say no to free books but maybe I should start. I've heard that Baldacci is a good writer. He sure does sell a lot of books, but for the life of me, after reading this one, I can't at all figure out why. Perhaps his earlier books are better. This one had the feel of a real mass-produced churn factory.Let's start with the premise. A. Shaw, a secret agent who works for an unnamed US agency, I think, decides to take down Evan Waller, a Canadian who leads a sex-trafficking business and has decided to sell nuclear materials to a terrorist organization. At the same time, Reggie Campion, a beautiful British woman who works for a secret vigilante organization also decides to take out Waller, on the premise that his real identity is that of a former KGB heavy by the name of Fedir Kuchin. Both agencies work at cross purposes to get Waller until the nuclear deal falls through and Shaw's agency decides Waller is no longer a worthy target. However, by this point, Shaw has fallen a bit for Reggie, who is masquerading as a wealthy American orphan and has piqued the interest of the sadistic Mr. Waller. Thinking Reggie doesn't know what she's getting into, Shaw wants to stay to protect her. In the meantime, he's regretting ending a relationship with journalist Katie James, and his boss, Frank, constantly reminds him that he's not worthy of the woman. So on the face of it, if I had just read the above, I'd be like, hmmmm sounds interesting. But man the writing and the characters will really let a girl down. This reads more like a bare bones screen play that no one picked up so Baldacci decided to turn it into a novel. Although the dialogue and low-brow descriptions make it a fast read, the only thing positive I can say is that at least I didn't spend too much time on it. My purpose was to read it lake-side at our family cottage over vacation and I mostly succeeded because the 3-4 page chapters were perfect for the constant interruption of my two toddlers.So here's what went wrong. The characters all kind of suck. Their motivations are uneven, their backstories provided as a matter of rote. Their interactions with each other don't really make sense. People pop in and out of the plot without seeming to really know what they are doing there. When Frank tells us that Shaw doesn't deserve Katie James, we're not really sure why? Because he's emotionally unavailable? He's a secret agent, I'm not sure how available he's supposed to be. Meanwhile Shaw is getting all googly over Reggie while at the same time telling us that he's not too interested. It's all very awkward in the writing. The book also just flat out tells us things about the people without letting the reader learn them organically to the story. Evan Waller, the evil man in the story is completely evil. The only off detail is a fondness for his own mother and a leaning towards being religious. This, I suppose, is supposed to give him some depth, but it just doesn't work. In the end, Waller is played out like an evil genius who is one step ahead of our heroes and he is, until seemingly he's not and the reasons why don't really feel all that realistic. While reading this book, I was increasingly feeling like perhaps this was at least the second book in a series and that perhaps I was missing something. When I got home from my internet free vacation, I looked it up and indeed it IS the second book in a series about A. Shaw (yeah he has no first name, get over it). So I thought, I should go ahead and read that maybe to get some context, but according to goodreads, I read it 5 years ago (you can find the description of The Whole Truth and my original Goodreads review here). And even reading my review I have NO idea what it was about and I can't actually remember reading it at all. Memorable huh? This book is a major skip unless you are on the beach and want an easy read. Some poor guy on our airplane back was reading a different Baldacci book and I gave him this one as he said he'd not read it and I finally finished it 20 minutes into the flight. That poor guy has no idea what I just did to him, but if he was reading another, he maybe won't be surprised. I think I'll let another 5 years pass before I read another of Baldacci's novels.
2/5 Stars.
Beware of found books. I found this book in our office kitchen area. Was it discarded - was someone hoping to rid themselves of a unwanted burden? Or was it someone, like me, who likes to leave reading material around when I'm finished in case someone else finds themselves in need? So this book sat in the drawer of my desk until I was abruptly called to a doctor's appointment and this went along as some last minute waiting room material. I've heard of Richard Matheson in the way that I was vaguely aware that I am Legend, the movie with Will Smith, was based on a book. I had no idea he was a well-known (by others) horror genre writer. Reading some of the stories in this book made me more familiar with his writing. This anthology is a collection of short stories inspired by his other works. The collection includes sequels, prequels and some others just along the same concepts as previous stories. The first story in the collection, Throttle, written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, is about a biker gang that becomes the target of revenge. It is inspired by a Matheson story. Each short story is introduced by a short paragraph which details which Matheson story was the inspiration. These blurbs made me want to check out some of Matheson's original work.As a collection, the anthology feels uneven. Some stories are superbly written and wickedly frightening, like Return to Hell House, which doesn't spare on graphic details but actually haunting scenes that was a bad choice to read right before bed. This and Throttle, really made the book. Others, including a take on the "Somewhere in Time" time travelling theme in which a man goes back in time to prevent his wife's suicide, were interesting and thought-provoking, if not exceptionally well written. Others, like the last story, Cloud Riders, were poorly written and seemed more like poor fan fiction than the worthy efforts of the authors who worked on the stories. I'll definitely be picking up some of Matheson's original work in the future, but for an already established Matheson fan, only a few of the stories included will probably do the man justice.
2/5 Stars.
This book made my heart happy. I read Peaceful Parent Happy Kids earlier this year (you can read that review here) and this book was a good follow up to that one. I first heard the book mentioned on a blog I follow (tinygreenelephants.com) and was interested because the blog author always seems to have a sweet understanding of her children's needs and I was interested in where she found inspiration. Plus, my momma heart needed a refresher after a rather difficult week with the kids. Nothing special or unique had happened, but the daily battle for moving kids from one task to the next had really started to wear on me. The book is short, and I should add, written from a very Christian perspective. There is reference to quite a bit of scripture in there and perhaps this would make the book unappealing to some. But the core message is heartening. You cannot control your kids. If you try, you will damage your relationship with them.It really is that simple. I thought about all the relationships I have in my life and tried to pick out one, just one that was based in control. None of them are. None. So what am I trying to do with my kids? Why do I feel the need to control all their actions and behaviors? I can't do that. What I can do is offer them choices, and if needed, consequences - those will help to shape who they are and the choices they will make later on when their world becomes larger. Danny Silk makes a point to say, that while your children are young, yes you can control them with your anger, with the threat of violence, but what do you do when they get older, and actually have some power to defy you? Would you rather rely on your relationship, and their love for you to guide their decisions. I think this is a pretty easy question. I had wished the book was a bit longer with more examples and probably some kind of quick visual guide to remember all the salient points - I probably just should have taken notes.So, I charge on in this parenting thing, trying to keep in mind that I don't control these two tiny, perfect humans I have made, but instead, when I ask them for the 90th time in the morning to put their shoes on, this time I may just be able to offer them a choice, put your shoes on now, or take them in the care and put them on at school? Both options, it turns out, I can live with.
4/5 Stars.
