Category Archives: Writers Read

Columbine by Dave Cullen [Review]

Posted on by
4

ColumbineColumbine by Dave Cullen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dave Cullen’s Columbine is a circuitous tale through the days leading up to and following the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. I find myself appalled and shocked and saddened at the loss of life and the immense sadness and pain of the families of the Thirteen who died as well as the survivors still fighting for life everyday.

This story holds some real life significance for me, as there are events in my past, in my family, that mirror what the Klebold and Harris families dealt with. Our pain was mirrored in theirs. Sometimes you just know, from experience, that there was nothing anyone could have done, let alone the families. People will do what they will do. I think what is most heartbreaking is that these families will never have the chance to really heal. They could never mourn. They can never participate in any “anniversaries”. They will forever be shunned and the community would never rest.

The final act of the killers was among their cruelest: they deprived the survivors of a living perpetrator. They deprived the families of a focus for their anger and their blame. There would be no cathartic trial for victims. There was no killer to rebuke in a courtroom, no judge to impose the maximum penalty. South Jeffco (Jefferson County) was seething with anger and it would be deprived of a reasonable target. Displaced anger would riddle the community for years…

What stood out to me, glaringly, was that Eric Harris was a manipulative psychopath, full and complete. Dylan wasn’t so much a follower as he was a person that wanted someone to pay attention to him. Eric fit the bill and fed his underlying rage. One of the passages that I highlighted about pair killers was that one fed off of the other. Cullen writes,

“It takes heat and cold to make a tornado. Eric craved heat but he couldn’t sustain it. Dylan was a volcano. You could never tell when he might erupt.

Together, these two cooked up the worst school shooting in history.

There is so much that we think we know about Columbine, because we kept CNN and MSNBC and local news on 24/7… and yet there is so much we did not know. Until I opened the book, I fully believed the martyr story. How disheartening to read how the actual encounter came about and how it became twisted in the media, so much so that a family profited off of a lie.

I encourage anyone who is even mildly interested in this subject to pick up this book and read it. The writing style is simple and straightforward, nothing superfluous. It is extensive and thorough and also heavily detailed. In my opinion, well done.

My only complaints were length and jarring jumps back and forth from past to the attacks to the aftermath and then back again… more history, more revealing, a blurb here and there, and then the author is a year past the attacks again and then in the next chapter he’s back to Eric and Dylan planning the attacks. I believe I would have comprehended more with a linear presentation, but that’s just me.

View all my reviews

Still Alice by Lisa Genova [Review]

Posted on by
1

Still AliceStill Alice by Lisa Genova

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lisa Genova presents a wonderfully and realistically woven, touching story about Alice Howland. Mother, wife, esteemed Harvard Professor, Research Analyst, Thesis Advisor– all around very important woman, busy and in full control of her life. Slowly, instances begin to pop up that seem strange and disconcerting, but also fleeting. She feels ridiculous even making mention of them until they start happening with more frequency and severity.

It begins with losing a word, here and there. Forgetting a name. The fact that she just met someone and forgot that she met them. Completely missing a flight to speak at a conference. The panic begins to set in when Alice goes out for a run and is momentarily frozen in fear– she has no idea where she is and how to get home. Unexpectedly, her memory snaps back, but the rising doubt within herself remains.

A visit to the neurologist confirms the unimaginable. In her early 50′s, a young, virile, brilliant Alice has been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. The news is a blow, but Alice tries to remain calm and steadfast, seek answers, prepare herself for what she knows is going to be a humiliating end.  “I am no longer a Harvard Professor,” she tells herself, after deciding to step down from her duties at the University. Alice begins to lose bits and pieces of herself, pieces she knows and can remember but seem to be lost inside her, swimming in something, being held back by a thickness that she can’t navigate. Alice will eventually have to be cared for. She won’t remember those who love her. Will she remember those she loves? And that she loves them?

Amid this story of awakening and an unremarkable strength is a tale of coming apart and gluing back together. Once at odds with a daughter who always paved her own way, her illness allows Alice to form a special bond that “old Alice” may never have allowed to form. At the opposite end, what was once a comfortable existence with her husband John begins to fray at the edges and unravel quickly as the disease progresses.

Still Alice is a moving, gripping story. At several points, I teared up, feeling the emotion with the author as she took us through the gamut of emotions- confusion, fear, anger, frustration. We feel, see, hear everything through Alice’s eyes. That view is revealing, a trip into dementia and Alzheimer’s that those of us on the outside of a debilitating, degenerative illness will never know.

I think one of the points of the story that was most moving to me, was the letter that Alice wrote to herself, back when she was lucid and of sound mind. The daily tests she gives herself and, upon failing, the instructions she also gives herself. I find it ironic that lucid Alice, as much forethought as she put into planning ahead, never imagined that she wouldn’t even be able to carry out her own instructions. And, thank goodness she couldn’t. She would have missed out on so much.

Genova does a superb job telling her story. I already can’t wait to read her second novel, “Left Behind.”

View all my reviews

Easily Amused by Karen McQuestion [Review]

Posted on by
3

Easily AmusedEasily Amused by Karen McQuestion

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Easily Amused is the short, sometimes funny, lightning fast read about Lola, editor of a Parenting Magazine, sister to the ever so perfect Mindy, friend to Piper-the-busy- mom and Hubert– the friend with the girlfriend she can’t stand. She lives in an old house on King Street, bequeathed to her from her Aunt May. Lola fills her life with her job and her friends and the occasional online date.

When Hubert’s girlfriend blessedly dumps him, Lola gains a sudden roommate. When Mindy gets engaged, she gains a sudden problem. Ever the competitive siblings, Lola and Mindy have spent their lives one-upping each other. The ultimate one up is coming– Mindy is both younger, thinner, prettier, more put together and is getting married before Lola. She intends to use her wedding to as an opportunity to stick it to her sister– Lola turns 30 on Mindy’s wedding day.
Piper to the rescue! She devises a plan that just might work, if only they knew a tall, dark and handsome man for Lola to take to the wedding and announce… an engagement!

Enter Ryan, the most mysterious neighbor on King Street. Suddenly there’s a new rivalry between Mindy and Lola over Ryan, Hubert (who’s developed feelings for Lola) and Ryan over Lola, and the entire neighborhood and Ryan. Much to Lola’s surprise, Ryan seems interested in more than posing as her fake fiancé. Lola falls headlong into like with him, despite the suspicious rumblings of her friends and much -too-curious interest from her engaged sister.

I bought this book from Amazon Kindle because it seemed interesting and it was cheap. $2.99 will get me every time! I find I read two types of books. Vapid and deeply dark. Sometimes I just need a break from the deeply dark, so on my break from Columbine, it was nice to get lost in some fluff.

I saw some criticism in other reviews about this author being unsigned and such… I did not honestly know that until I’d finished the book and read the reviews. I don’t think it’s fair to say I don’t like something without saying why I didn’t like it, so here’s what stood out to me in the Needs Improvement Department:

Easily Amused didn’t come off to me as amateur, but in hindsight it could have used some editing and, for lack of a better word, primping. The characters seem to need more development (especially Mindy and Ryan) and the story moves very quickly. I was disappointed in the climax — the conflict reaches a crescendo and then the story screams back down the cliff. I wanted to read more about the confrontation. I also noted a few misspellings, but nothing that stands out glaringly.

I say, kudos to Ms. McQuestion for not wrapping the entire Lola/Hubert story line in one big unbelievable bow. I love the dangling question at the end of the book. I just wish there was more development along the Mindy/Ryan/Lola line. I also felt like there wasn’t enough information given about Ryan to make me sufficiently suspicious, though I was starting to feel a bit iffy about him.

I keep fighting between 2 and 3 stars for this book. I’ve settled on three. It was enjoyable, moved a bit slow but not an awful read, once I got a few chapters in.

View all my reviews

I’m writing, I swear. Swear.

Posted on by
Reply

I wrote some last night, almost 2000 words. Then I did some editing and writing at work today. I got up to a particular point– a pivotal scene… okay it’s a sex scene. I couldn’t write that at work, what with people coming up behind me. I got up to almost 9K words. Since this is a double chapter, I have ~9000 more to go. :/

Reading as well. My good friend and author Rebecca Abbot Miller just finished her new book Going Home (third in the Quintessential Series) and I got to read the final chapters. Can’t wait until it’s out and everyone can read it. I’m still trying to get through Columbine as well. It’s a really tough read. I think I just started chapter 19 and I have about 1/3 of the book to go. I’ve been interspersing it with lighter fare, lest I get depressed myself.

I’m glad I wrote some earlier because I had a few other issues to sort out tonight and wouldn’t have had time to concentrate on writing. I’m still planning to read for a bit tonight… in fact as soon as I press publish!

Oh, as an added note, one of my “real life” friends read my 2009 NaNo project and she loved it! I’m beaming! Yay.

The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen [Review]

Posted on by
3

The Girl Who Chased the MoonThe Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

I didn’t know anything about this book when I picked it from the stack, other than my fave book blogger WriteMeg! had read it at as well and didn’t hate it. So glad I decided to get it and take a chance on it. I was craving something light and wonderful and this definitely hit the spot.

The town of Mullaby, NC is a small, southeastern town full of polite charm and a little bit of magic. Sixteen year old Emily has been sent there to live with her grandfather after the death of her mother. Right away, she learns that her mother was not always a fine, upstanding citizen. Rather, she had quite the reputation.

Emily meets her grandfather, a giant of a man as harmless as a butterfly. He is shy, avoids people and crowds, has a hard time fitting in– Emily knows how he feels. So does Julia, resident cake baker and owner of the local barbecue restaurant. Her return to Wallaby just a few short years prior dredged up a lot of old memories– namely Sawyer, a boy she once loved and was torn from, with whom she shares a large secret.

And then there is the strangeness. The Mullaby Lights that only glow in the night, the “sweet sense” that Sawyer seems to have, the sparkle that follows Julia around…. there are a lot of mysteries in Mullaby, for such a quiet little town.

View all my reviews

Free Writing Books at BN.com

Posted on by
Reply

I downloaded some goodies for my Nook today. Thought I would share since you don’t have to have a device to grab these, just access to a free reader or the app on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. I like to have a mobile version that I can look up and don’t have to get up and dig through the bookcase to find.

I’ve also decided that of my annual reading goal, at least one book a month should be something writing, to help me improve or just have a store of information in the back of my mind, mentally slapping my hands, should I do something I probably shouldn’t. I know they say ignorance is bliss, but ignorance could also keep a person from improving and

2011 Goals- Reading and Writing Challenges

Posted on by
1

I’m a recent faithful reader over at FictionGroupie, and Roni posted a great list today of her 2011 goals, which reminded me that I might want to set some for myself.

WRITING GOALS

As everyone is already well aware, I’ve re-upped for Get Your Words Out, 2011. I’ve challenged myself to 350K words for the year. No small feat but I’m not really afraid of it. Either I’ll make it or I won’t, but I’m not trying to fail. Of those 350K words, I need to set some mini goals as to what I plan to do with those words:

A. Finish All I Wanna Do. I was hoping for only 60 chapters but it may stretch to 61 o 62.

B. Write more short stories. We all know that short and succinct is a challenge for me.

C. Get back to my original fiction piece. Maybe I will write chapter 2 next year?

D. Write a big bang- 20,000 words on a subject. GYWO will be running this.

READING GOALS

I’ve been a busy little reader lately. I’ve discovered the world of eBooks which has made it easier and more convenient to read. I’ve never done an official reading challenge, so I’m going to join Roni here:

and here….

I read eBooks almost exclusively, so an eBook challenge should be no problem. I think I should also challenge myself to buy physical books at least once  a month. That’s probably a more difficult challenge. As for book reading, I’d like to set my goal at 50. I never counted before, but I’m guessing I’ve read about a book a month in 2010, give or take a month. I also want to REVIEW them, which is a challenge for me as well.

BLOGGING GOALS

I’m trying to be better about being more descriptive as to the process of writing. What are my goals, what am I thinking about, what am I planning. And when a chapter/story is done, what I thought of it. What were my strong/weak points, what I could improve on. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a pretty hard nut to crack about myself. I’m not in anyway deluded that I’m an “excellent” writer. In my humble opinion, I could use some work.

So I’ll be getting down to it in 2011.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel by Tom Franklin [Review]

Posted on by
Reply

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A NovelCrooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel by Tom Franklin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let me just start by saying…this book was FANTASTIC. A real page turner, a mystery like none other with a great human interest and race relations undercurrent. I guess I have to admit that these are my favorite kinds of books, ones that detail the struggle between choosing what you’ve always been taught and forging your own ideas about things and going your own way.

After the disappointment of the last book I read, I was craving something gripping, not the same old story told in the same old way. I picked this book out off of some list and from Page 1 it had me.

In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas “32″ Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they’ve buried and ignored for decades.

As you can imagine, I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in Mississippi via the imagery painted by the author. I could see the house that Larry and his family lived in, the delapitated cabin that Silas and his mother lived in, the lush forests and dirt roads of the back country and the daily ramblings and small town adventures of Chabot. The cast of characters was sparkling and charming–I don’t think there was one underdeveloped character, not one useless name, not one wasted sentence. Even the stories Carl told served a purpose. Every person played a part in this story from Larry to Voncelle (office clerk) to Angie (medical examiner and Silas’ love interest) I also love when a writer can make me almost hear the dialog in my head, like I’m watching the movie.

I sort of felt sorry for “Scary Larry”. Poor, weird little kid. Toward the climax, there are a few twists that I really enjoyed digging into, namely the connection between Larry and Wallace, and Larry, Silas, Carl and Ina– I suspected this one pretty early on but the author kept me waiting to confirm it. There’s nothing like sitting straight up, eyes wide open, and gasping while you read and then the pages can’t turn fast enough.

Well written, I really enjoyed it. I rarely give a book 5 stars, and I was tempted, but two things kept me from doing so:

a) There is a secret that Larry learns ( a few of them) that should tear him up more than they do. We’re so of left dangling when he should be angry and hurt and lashing out and he doesn’t. He seems sort of ‘alright’ with it and I disagreed that his reaction should be so mild.

b) I decided that things didn’t conclude as messily as I’d imagine they would, had this happened in real life. It was real… “pat”. I dislike pat.

It’s like happy endings… do they really exist?

Other than that, LOVED IT.

View all my reviews

S L O W moving chapter (but at least it’s moving) and a new book!

Posted on by
2

4000 words and I haven’t even got past day one. I’m trying to make sight-seeing seem interesting by interspersing banter and funny, meaningful conversation and not making it obvious that I want to move time along. I suppose it helps that I don’t plan to detail every day of a week long vacation like I’m detailing this first day. My goal for the next 1000 words is going to get them at least to their final destination, the island of Santorini. I should aim for that tonight but I just don’t have the brain capacity, really. It’ll have to be tomorrow.

I also started reading a new book that is way less of a disappointment than my last book.

[Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is] an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas “32″ Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.
More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they’ve buried and ignored for decades.

It’s fantastic so far, fast paced and full of questions to be answered and puzzles to solve. I’m on Ch 4 and I expect to finish in the next few days.

In which I am still awake, this is going to have to be a double chapter, but I topped 3000 words yay

Posted on by
Reply

I think that says it all. *shrug*

Goodnight.

Oh no. Not goodnight. I finished The Lonely Polygamist. Sort of. I’ll let my goodreads review stand for itself. Suffice it to say…. *two snaps* HAAATED IIIIITTTT…

The Lonely PolygamistThe Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This box asks me what I think… well. I think I don’t understand the 4 and 5 star ratings of this book. I liked the story itself. It seemed to be full, however, of winding stories and retrospection, which provides us with back story. I guess I’ll have to think further about the characters and development and writing style. [Adding: Which were fine, I guess. It wasn't impossible to understand].

Right now I just can’t get over the fact that I skipped about 1/3 of this book until it seemed like the story advanced.

I tried my hand at a review… I’ll have to try again another time. Everything I write sounds as boring as I found this book to be. I will say that I did not initially find Golden Richards to be a strong enough man to have 4 wives and that made me hard to respect him as a character. We find out, pretty early on from his skulking around his own house trying to avoid his wives, that he’s not really the head of his house. His children run wild and there is little bond/sisterhood that we hear so much about in polygamist families. Much more apparent is the discordance and dysfunction.

Golden didn’t seem very lonely, to me. Just out of control. The lonely one seemed to be his son, Rusty, who everyone thought was just weird. That story line seemed to be the most interesting of all of them and unfortunately seemed to get such little attention up until the end.
View all my reviews

I don’t know what I’m reading next, but please let it be good.

These words are my own…

Posted on by
Reply

I have writted. I got in my 1000 words for the night. Tomorrow I’ll edit the first 1400 and type 1000 more until this chapter is complete. Seems like a nice way to pace myself and not get buried under detail and minutae.

My chapter opens with my characters on a long awaited flight. I’ve spent 3 days with them on the plane… my goal today was to get them off of the plane and I did that.

Now it’s time to settle down and get some reading in. I’m taking a break from Pretty Little Liars and I’ve picked up the Lonely Polygamist. I don’t know why I am drawn to stories about this life, but I am. The MC so far doesn’t seem like a strong enough man to have 4 wives, but whatever. Just getting into it.

Speaking of, my to read pile is kind of scary. I’ve committed to not getting any more books (fingers crossed behind my back) until I’ve made a dent in that list. It’ll get to where I can’t remember why I thought a book would be interesting to read (why did I get a book named BUFFALO???) and then I’ll archive it and I’ll never read it. Thankfully most ebooks are free downloads so it’s not like it’s a waste of money, but… I don’t need to waste space either.

Speaking of x 2… I think I am going to give myself the gift of a Nook Color. I have so many books in .epub format, which the kindle doesn’t read. Also I only have the iPhone app, which doesn’t let you add books to it. I CAN add books to my Nook for PC app but they don’t translate to the Nook app on my iPhone. I’m hoping that is something that will work for the Nook, otherwise I’m still out an eReader that is truly compatible with my iPhone.

Ah well. Seems more research is in order!