Review

The Dead Path

/ justbookreading / 2 Comments

The Dead Path

Stephen M. Irwin

Doubleday

ISBN: 9780385533430

4 stars

Every year around this time, with the leaves turning and pumpkins making their way into stores, I find myself craving ghost stories. Stories that make you want to sleep with the lights on and double check the locks on the doors and windows when the slightest sound is heard. Irwin deftly accomplishes both in his debut novel.

Nicholas Close is living his dream life in London. He has a beautiful wife, they’re renovating their new home together, and he has a job he enjoys. When a sudden and tragic accident takes his wife’s life, he can’t get past the devastation, the collapse of their dreams, and the downward spiral of his life. One other problem he’s having that he would do anything to escape — he’s seeing ghosts. Not just simple hauntings, like socks going missing and found in odd places, but what he’s seeing are the last violent moments of people’s lives over and over like a movie he can’t shut off. Everywhere he goes they appear making him wonder if he’s losing his mind.

Nicholas makes the decision to move back to his native Australia with the hope of starting fresh. His hometown doesn’t have much to offer but it was home many years ago and what he’s looking for is a clean slate which his small town can provide. His mother, never a very affectionate person, welcomes him home rather half-heartedly, but he’s fine with the reception not expecting much more than the cup of tea she offers. His sister, a mother and successful business woman, decides to visit him as well and Nicholas finds in her a kindred spirit of sorts. She understands about the ghosts, and reveals a small secret — their long dead father believed in witchcraft and she herself is a follower.

When a child disappears into the woods that have long haunted Nicholas, he starts to see and hear things that he knows can’t be possible. He starts to research the woods and finds a long dead woman still alive and possibly the reason for the strange occurrences, disappearances, and murders around town.

There’s that old saying that writers should write what they know. Well, I sincerely hope Stephen Irwin is not writing what he knows because his life would be terrifying if that were the case. This book starts out with death and racks up the numbers quickly. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish this book but then something happened, and without taking away any of the adrenalin-rush, Irwin brings on the creepy mystery and changes the story from one about child murders to a depraved witch on a hunt for blood. He doesn’t drop the intensity level one bit and you race through the pages wondering what’s going to happen next.

It’s dark, disturbing, and in places disgusting, but does what it’s supposed to do — it scares you. It makes you want to turn on every light in your house and banish house plants for fear they could be communing with a witch in the woods to conspire your ending. What I liked about the evil in this book was that it was subtle in appearance and you have to wait for Nicholas to figure things out, which in some places was a little frustrating but all part of the story. By the end of the book, you stop feeling sorry for Nicholas and want to yell at him to fight.

While I found parts of the book slightly unpalatable, child murders are never an easy subject even when it is clearly fiction, the book delivered on the terror factor. If you’re looking for a book for Halloween, this might be the one to try. It will certainly leave you with the need for extra lighting and a creepy feeling about dark woods.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

/ justbookreading / 8 Comments

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

By J.K. Rowling

Scholastic, Inc.

ISBN: 043913959-7

5 stars

I’m moving along nicely with this series.  I was surprised, again, by how much more I remember from the movies than the books but that’s what’s making this re-read so much fun.

The short re-cap — Harry starts his fourth year at Hogwarts, gets to see the Quidditch World Cup, finds out that Hogwarts will host the Tri-Wizard Tournament, sees his name thrown out of the Goblet of Fire as a contestant, almost gets killed by a dragon, eats some gillyweed, and sees Voldermort re-born.

As you’ve been warned — spoilers below.

There was a lot about this book I didn’t remember, one being just how mean Snape is to Hermione!  I knew it was there but re-reading it again was awful; he is just so harsh to a young girl.  As you can see, I’m moving along with my Hate Snape Campaign nicely.  There is no redemption for him.  I will not forgive him later even when he tries to redeem himself in Harry’s eyes.  Nor will I forgive Harry for forgiving him but that comes later and I’m getting way ahead of myself.  Another thing about this book I forgot is how profoundly sad it is when Cedric dies.  It’s always been a sad moment but I found myself tearing up at those bits this time around.  There’s also a lot to laugh at in this book and I like the way Rowling balances the two.  Honestly, I can’t wait for the Divination classes to be over.  I’m just as fed up with Professor Trelawney as Harry is but I find both Ron and Harry’s homework full of deathly predications to be quite amusing.  The ending of this book, while very sad, also gives you that look ahead that makes you want to pull the next book off the shelf and keep going with the story.

I’ve been pacing myself with these books.  If I didn’t, I probably would have overdosed on Harry Potter already.  It’s been fun rediscovering this story slowly and letting it unfold as it does and I’m glad I decided to go this route instead of for the all at once indulgence.  I haven’t read these books in so long that I have forgotten a lot of the little details so each one has held small surprises for me.  Those surprises are well appreciated I can tell you.

I’m excited about book five for several reasons: more Sirius Black; more angry Dumbledore; more Mad-Eye Moody; and the Weasley twins!

 

Chasing the Night

/ justbookreading / Leave a comment

Chasing the Night

By Iris Johansen

St. Martin’s Press

ISBN: 978031265119-0

4 stars

I read Johansen’s Storm Cycle several months ago and when the opportunity to read this one popped up, I took it. While thrillers and crime fiction are not part of my regular reading, I do enjoy a good one once in a while and Johansen is a writer I feel I can turn too.

Forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan, is preparing for her latest reconstruction — a murdered young girl. With memories of her dead daughter, Bonnie, swirling in her head, she knows it will be a rough case emotionally but believes she can help the girl and her family find peace. At the start of the case, she gets a call from a CIA operative she’s worked with in the past, Venable, who wants her to do him a favor. She declines but soon after finds herself playing host to Catherine Ling.

Catherine is an agent of Venable’s and a woman tormented by the loss of her son. She asked Venable to convince Eve to help her, and when Eve refused, Catherine decides the only way to persuade Eve to help her is by telling her about Luke, her missing son. Catherine’s story breaks Eve’s heart and before she knows what she’s agreed to, Eve tells Catherine that she will do the age progression for her. Eve will never be able to bring back her daughter Bonnie but wants to help Catherine in any way she can. Even if the only help she can reasonably provide is giving her a picture of her son at his current age. Catherine believes her son is alive but knows that the madman who kidnapped Luke when he was only two may have killed him. Her unwavering belief that her son is still alive is what convinces Eve to help her.

What looks like a few days of trying and emotional work turns out to be much more complicated when the man who kidnapped Catherine’s son gets Eve involved. Without knowing what horrors await them, Catherine and Eve leave for Russia, and with a little help from Eve’s friend and lover, Joe Quinn, and some CIA assistance, they set out to find Luke.

There is one thing I always remind myself when reading a book like this one — suspension of disbelief. So much happens in such a short period and most of the time particulars are left out of the picture. And when I start to think about how people manage to cross international borders without the aid of things like passports, I get bothered. Johansen makes you forget all of these things with her story. In fact, she doesn’t give you much time to even think because you’ll be reminding yourself to breathe because her characters and the story move so fast with a million twists and turns.

This is the newest book in the Eve Duncan series and I can see why people are such fans of this character. Eve is a flawed woman with so much emotional baggage you wonder how she makes it through the day but that’s also what makes her interesting. Besides her work, there is nothing clinical about her and you like her for those reasons. The story in this book is heartbreaking — although I can’t imagine how stories about missing children couldn’t be — and that’s what keeps you riveted. Catherine is a high-strung character and very intense. She’s not likable but Eve makes her quest for her son very human, and when she drops the facade she put in place to help her deal with finding her son, she becomes much more relatable. She’s a woman with one thing on her mind and that’s finding her son. Eve knows that feeling only too well and wraps herself up in Catherine’s search.

Not wanting to ruin the ending, I won’t say much more than this — fans of the Eve Duncan series will be left with eager anticipation for the next book as this one leaves off with a bit of a cliff hanger. This was only my second Johansen book and the first foray into the Eve Duncan series, but even I want to know how this story will continue.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America

/ justbookreading / Leave a comment

The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America

By Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake Smith

Henry Holt and Company

ISBN: 978-0-8050-8654-6

4.75 stars

My original review of this book was very long and detailed.  Unfortunately, the file was corrupted and the book is back at the library so I don’t have it here as a reference while re-writing this review.  I like to write my own re-caps but I’m going to do something I normally don’t do — link to Amazon.  It has a bit of information about the book and I’ll supplement below from what I remember and add a few thoughts.

My history of the Jamestown colony is sparse, at least what I remember from grade/middle school, and I’ll admit that it’s mostly dates and names.  The drama of what Jamestown was about wasn’t covered in those far away history lessons.  Here, the story isn’t so much about the dates and times but the drama of Jamestown.  The Virginia Company, indebted to the King of England, was so worried about forfeiting their claim that they went out and recruited individuals that had no business being part of a settlement.  These were people looking for a way to escape the poverty and grief of London and the Virginia Company promised clothes, food, and shelter if they signed up.  Of course people signed up for the chance at a new life where they would have no worries and want for nothing.  Unfortunately, the Virginia Company forgot the simple things, like signing up people who could build houses, plant crops, dig wells, and hunt.  They were doomed.

The first group of settlers fared badly, fought with the Powhatan Native Americans, and ended up being starved out by them and then turning to cannibalism.  When the second wave of settlers arrived, they didn’t find any milk and honey, what they did find were open graves and starving, mad people.  When reports got back to England, the great public relations machine that was the Virginia Company kicked into high gear to mitigate the rumors and lies as they called them.  They even went so far as to stop the publication of a memoir of one of the survivors so they could go on recruiting.

Now, the Sea Venture was a ship in the second wave of settlers.  Unfortunately, it was caught up in a hurricane and crashed on Bermuda.  There the settlers found a land full of promise and riches.  There were birds, turtles, pigs, fruit and vegetables, and a land that was rich for farming.  They didn’t want to leave.  The leaders knew that their allegiance was to the Virginia Company and built two new ships to get them the short distance from Bermuda to Jamestown.  They arrived to a land of horror.  However, they were in a way, the saving grace of the colony.  Shortly after the arrival of the shipwrecked passengers, new ships arrived with provisions and people were, in a way, saved and the settlement preserved.

The interesting part of the story for me was the founding of Bermuda.  As it turns out, some of the travelers that landed on the island, which has been known as the Devil’s Island, told the leaders of the Virginia Company what a wonderfully fruitful place it was and the Company sent new ships to the island which was settled quickly and bountifully.  In a strange twist of fate, the Virginia Company which was losing money in the pit that was Jamestown made its money back in the first settlement of Bermuda due to the richness of the land.  So the Sea Venture not only gets credit for reviving Jamestown, but also for the settlement of Bermuda.

Since I’ve been feeling historically deficient this was one of the books that I picked up with the intent of fixing that need.  This one came through for me.  It doesn’t read like a dry history book but is filled with fascinating and wonderful facts that only made me want to read more about Jamestown and the Powhatan tribe.  There was not much discussion of the Powhatan other than their fighting with the first settlement and ultimate starvation of the settlers but the history there interested me and now I have a new subject to follow up on.

If you’re looking for something to fix a history craving, I recommend this one.

Mockingjay

/ justbookreading / 1 Comment

Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

ISBN: 978-0-439-02351-1

4 stars

I didn’t think I would be reviewing this book this soon.  When I put it on hold at the library, I was 48th in line and wasn’t expecting to even read this book before next year.  I was surprised when my hold came in much earlier than expected.  I also surprised myself by showing a tad bit of restraint by waiting until I finished my current read before starting this one.

When this book came out, I read all the reviews, even the ones with spoilers because I like spoilers.  I read the last few pages of this book before I was 20 pages in and knew how it ended which made reading the book much easier for me.  If I can’t figure out where something is going, I read ahead, but if I know even basically how it will end, I will stick to the process of turning each page in order.  I wanted to be able to read this book without being annoyed at not knowing so I took a few liberties at the beginning.  So what did I actually think of this book?

In the interest of not giving too much away and providing spoilers (I know not everyone loves them as much as I do.), I’m going to do a very brief overview and then move onto my thoughts.  With books in a series, I always find it hard not to give too much away since so much of the story depends on the endings of the previous books.

Katniss Everdeen, survivor of two Hunger Games, is now the symbol of the revolution against the Capitol.  She’s hurt physically and mentally and barely surviving day-to-day let alone a revolution.  Reluctantly, she agrees to become the Mockingjay for the revolution as long as she gets a few things: they rescue Peeta and the other Hunger Games participants that can be found, grant them immunity, and she gets to kill President Snow.

Great parts of this book left me annoyed and some of it left me underwhelmed.  The tension that built up in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire felt lost here much the same way Katniss was.  I wanted more than bombing raids and body counts and I wanted less of Katniss being in a daze hiding in closets afraid of the world beyond the walls she doesn’t even feel safe behind.  Once again, the story is told by Katniss but when she’s too busy twirling the bracelet that labels her mentally unstable to tell it to you, it suffers.  And, yes, the Team Gale/Team Peeta thing…I was so annoyed by this whole love triangle thing.  Kiss Gale one day, kiss Peeta the next day.  It was awkward and annoying and in the end she basically waited it out until one of them made the decision for her.  She became incapable of making any decisions or understanding her own feelings.

Now, that last paragraph doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book because I did.  The politics of the revolution are interesting, they have to be as the story pretty much runs on them, and seeing some of the old characters return was a nice touch.  It also moves fast, really fast.  It was an emotional ride and once it had you, kept you there wondering what would happen next.  I can’t in anyway say it was a bad read.  I was riveted to this book and thought about it for days after so obviously it had some affect on me.  Katniss is meant to infuriate and annoy and she played the role perfectly here.  Being the last book in the trilogy though, I think I was hoping for more, unfortunately I don’t really know what that more is.

If you’ve read the previous books in this series, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, you’ll most likely not want to miss this one.

 

DNF — The Clouds Beneath the Sun

/ justbookreading / 5 Comments

The Clouds Beneath the Sun

By Mackenzie Ford

Doubleday

ISBN: 978-0-385-52911-2

DNF

I began reading The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford and was very hopeful I would enjoy the book.  It was set in Kenya in the 1960s on an archeological dig.  The main character, Natalie Nelson, is a woman trying to escape her life in England, the suspicious death of her mother, a father who is blaming her for her mother’s death, and a failed love affair with a married man.  She lands in Kenya and is instantly taken in by a discovery in the gorge where the dig is taking place.  Shortly after the discovery, a colleague is murdered in the camp. Being the only person to see anything that night, Natalie gives testimony that will put her life, and the lives of her colleagues, in danger.  She also risks closing down the dig when tensions flare with the neighboring Maasai tribe who have granted permission for the dig to take place on their land.

The story began a bit slow but found its footing, and then somewhere between a new find and a love triangle, it faltered again.  I kept trying to find something of interest but it seemed as if I was watching the story take place in my peripheral vision instead of being invested in it.  I would pick up the book and after a few pages put it down again.  This went on for several days and then I began to realize that I was starting to write a DNF post in my head each time I looked at the book and that was when I decided it wasn’t going to work out.

Am I giving up entirely?  No, I’m not.  I think it was just the wrong time for this book.  It will go back to the library, but I plan to re-visit it in a few months and see how I feel about it then.

The Mosaic of Shadows

/ justbookreading / 3 Comments

The Mosaic of Shadows

By Tom Harper

Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur

ISBN: 0-312-33867-8

3 stars

The Mosaic of Shadows had a perfect setting, Byzantium, a mystery which I was willing to accept under the guise of historical fiction, and some interesting characters.  Unfortunately, the story fell a bit flat for me.

In Byzantium in 1066, an assassin narrowly misses the emperor with an arrow.  Knowing the implications if the emperor were to die, the palace wants the assassin found.  Demetrios Askiates, a man known for uncovering mysteries, is called to the palace and given orders to uncover the assassin’s plot and catch the would be killer.  Demetrios, whose usual cases have to do with finding lost items, ends up in an unknown world dealing with princes, slaves, and mercenaries.  When an army summoned by the emperor appears at the city’s walls, the hunt for an assassin takes on a new urgency.

The setting of this book was wonderful but the characters, with the exception of one, weren’t so wonderful.  Demetrios is in over his head and doesn’t seem like a person you would hire for this type of job unless you wanted him to fail.  He has a family but they’re mostly an afterthought and the love interest is barely thought of until she’s needed.  All of this made Demetrios rather unappealing.  He was supposed to be a solver of mysteries but he was more like a bumbling detective you would hire to find a cat in a tree.  I wanted to like him but I couldn’t find his redeeming value.

Some of the more interesting characters didn’t get developed as much as I would have liked.  The Varangians, who guard the emperor, are known for their fierce devotion and fighting abilities and the captain of the emperor’s guard, Sigurd, was a character I would have liked to have seen more of.

The ending, however, was exciting and I was glad that I stuck around for that.  Unfortunately, the mystery part of the story didn’t feel much like a mystery for me.  The person who “did it” was a person I wanted to see gone anyway so it’s wasn’t much of a surprise when his association with the killer was revealed.

This is the first book in a series and I don’t know if I will be following up with the others.  However, if I find out that the Varangian guards are featured, I may change my mind.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

/ justbookreading / 6 Comments

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

By Mary Roach

W.W. Norton & Company

ISBN: 978-0-393-06847-4

5 stars

Space is not my thing; neither is watching the NASA channel.  Most days I don’t have any interest in space travel or NASA but this book may have turned that around for me.

Packing for Mars is about the strange research that goes into sending someone into the void.  Humans are not suited for the journey, will never adapt to it, and need to be prepared for every possible contingency.  What I tend to think of when I hear NASA is the monstrous budget and Roach sheds light on why and how that money is spent, and oddly, most of it is spent on the ground testing every piece of equipment that will be hurled into space on a metal tube attached to a rocket.

Astronauts are an odd bunch, and most who own up to that title, never actually spend any time in space.  Most spend their days endlessly testing things like space suits and tools rather than flying a spacecraft.  In addition, it was interesting to read about some of the first thoughts NASA scientists had about space and the affect on the human body which included — will blood still flow in a man’s veins without gravity (The use of the word man is intentional.  Woman weren’t being considered for astronaut positions at the time.), will the digestive system still function without gravity, and what will those astronauts eat after all?

A large portion of this book is devoted to bodily functions.  I wouldn’t recommend reading this book while eating unless of course you have ambitions involving space travel, then I would say you must read this while eating to get any vomit reaction you might have under control.

Bizarre simulations are something NASA excels at.  They use monkeys, cadavers, and even living and breathing people to find out how g-forces, food additives, weightlessness, and isolation will affect a person in space.  Some of the isolation simulations recounted here are quite amusing and also disconcerting as I would have to seriously consider why anyone would want to undergo some of these tests, and maybe even their commitment to sanity, for a chance to look down at the earth from space.

The best part of this book — the footnotes.  I never thought I would ever say that considering I mostly skip footnotes but Roach has a very engaging and funny style that makes you laugh at some of the odd things that actually go on at NASA.

If you’re interested in space, or not, this book is a fascinating read that will have you laughing and thoroughly disgusted at the same time but all in a good way.  I highly recommend it.