Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEW: Elevation by Stephen King

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Elevation

Elevation is a novella with two separate stories which take place in Castle Rock. The first story is called “Elevation”, and is basically about a man who keeps losing weight, although he doesn’t change in appearance. Additionally, anything that he holds or touches has no weight while he is in contact with them. This story reminded me a little bit of “Thinner” by Stephen King.The second story is called “Laurie” and is about a widower who gets a new puppy from his sister. At first he doesn’t want the dog, but as most dogs do, she worms her way into his heart. “Laure” is a bonus story which is only available on the Audiobook and is not included with the written book.

Although I liked this novella, I think that it lacked in the scary or eerie elements that usually are Stephen King’s trademarks. Since the stories were so short, you also do not really get so invested in the characters.

However, since Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, I would always recommend to read his books. If you are looking for a quick holiday read (the Audiobook took about 4-5 hours), this would be a good one.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Elevation http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38355410-elevation

BOOK REVIEW: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

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Laurel Mack’s fifteen year old daughter walks out of the house one day and just disappears without a trace. Ten years later, the police find Ellie’s body, and Laurel’s world goes into a tail spin. Throughout the long years, Laurel lost her marriage, and her relationship with her oldest daughter deteriorated. She in essence has nothing left.

Then She Was Gone

Then she meets Floyd, a deceptively charming man with a huge secret. After only a short time, Laurel is meeting Floyd’s daughters.  Poppy, the youngest daughter, reminds Laurel so much of Ellie — in fact everyone says so.

As the review on Amazon.com for this book says it best: “And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?”

This book keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next, all the way up to the shockingly unexpected and twisted ending.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Then She Was Gone http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297426-then-she-was-gone

BOOK REVIEW: The Story of Us by Lana Kortchik

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The Story of Us is a book about Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Ukraine city of Kiev.  “The only thing Natasha Smirnova knew for a fact on the 19th of September 1941 when Hitler invaded Kiev was that life as she knew it was over.”

The Story of Us: The sweeping historical debut of 2018 that you will never forget

Within a short period since the arrival of Hitler’s troops, Natasha was assaulted by a German officer, and her grandmother was shot in an attempt to save Natasha.  The would-be rapist soldier was killed by another solider, Mark, who was conscripted into the army in his native country of Hungary.  He helped Natasha bring her wounded grandmother home, and although he was the enemy, Natasha could not help but to find him attractive.So, when she runs into him again on the street, she strikes up a conversation with him, only to find that he may not be the enemy after all.  His philosophy was that “the issue is that [the Hungarians] are unwilling participants in a capitalist war none of [them] can identify with.  That [they] are dying for a principle [they] do not believe in.”  Hitler’s war is not Mark’s war.

Natasha and Mark start seeing each other on a regular basis, and she finds herself falling in love with him. Seeing each other in secret, they know the dangers of discovery, but are like moths to the flame.

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BOOK REVIEW: A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey

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I first heard about a person named James Comey when President Trump fired him from his job as FBI Director for his failure to agree to be “loyal” to Trump. Famously, he agreed to be “loyally honest” in some sort of weird compromise. From Austria, I watched Comey’s hearing testimony before Congress with great interest. Many blamed him for Hilary Clinton’s defeat.

When I learned that he had written a book, I was intrigued to see his perspective on the controversial Presidency and Hilary email scandal. Although most of the book was about Comey’s career before Trump became president, Comey did have this to say about Trump:

“Donald Trump’s Presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation. We all bear responsibility for the deeply flawed choices put before voters during the 2016 election and our country is paying a high price. This President is unethical and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty. We are fortunate some ethical leaders have chosen to serve and to stay at senior levels of government, but they cannot prevent all the damage from the forest fire that is the Trump presidency. Their task is to try to contain it.”

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After Anna by Lisa Scottoline

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In this edge-of-your-seat thriler by Lisa Scottoline, Dr. Noah Alderman, a pediatric allergist, is on trial for strangling his teenage stepdaughter, Anna, to death.  Maggie Alderman, his second wife, lost custody of Anna when she was an infant because Maggie suffered from post pardum psychosis and was a danger to Anna’s life.  Maggie’s ex-husband, Florian, was a spiteful jerk, who never let Maggie see her daughter, even though he was not very interested in a relationship with Anna.  He basically dropped her off at boarding school, where she was parked for most of her childhood.

After Anna

When multi-millionare Florian, his new wife and two sons die in a horrible plane crash, heiress Anna reaches out to her mother.  Maggie is thrilled, and invites Anna to move in with her, Noah, and Noah’s son Caleb.

That is when everything starts to go horribly wrong.  Anna is not the sweet girl that Maggie imagines.  She is manipulative, a spendthrift, a liar, and pits Noah against Maggie in an attempt to get Maggies all to herself.  After Anna makes some shocking allegations, Maggie and Noah’s marriage falls apart.

The story flips between the past and the present, and the facts behind the murder are revealed a little at a time, keeping the reader in suspense.  Full of twists and turns, not everything in this book is what it seems.

Will Noah be exonerated of Anna’s murder?  Read this great book to find out!

Check out this book on Goodreads: After Anna http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34964864-after-anna

BOOK REVIEW: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

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Alaska “is like no other, it is beauty, and horror, savior and destroyer.  Here, where survival is a choice that must be made over and over.  In the wildest place in America on the edge of civilization where water in all its forms can kill you, you learn who you are.  Not who you dream of being, not who you imagined you are, not who you were raised to be.  All of that will be torn away in the months of icy darkness when frost on the windows blurs your view and the world gets very small and you stumble into the truth of your existence. You learn what you will do to survive.”

the great alone

When Lenny’s father, Ernt, returns from being a POW in Vietnam, he is a changed man.  Prone to violent nightmares and easily agitated, he clearly suffers from PTSD, which he often treats by self medicating with alcohol, as there was no real understanding of PTSD at this time.  After losing yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision to move the family to Alaska, to live off the grid in the homestead that Ernt inherited from a fellow solider he befriended while in Vietnam.  He promises that everything will be different (for the better) in Alaska.  Cora, Ernt’s wife, and Lenny agree because they are desperate to get the pre-war Ernt back.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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The Maze Runner by James DashnerThe Maze Runner is a young adult post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction novel. I thought that I would like it, since I had read and loved the Hunger Games series, but honestly, it fell short and I was really disappointed.

The main character Thomas wakes up in a strange place called the Glade with no memories of who he is or how he got there. The Glade is surrounded by walls and outside the walls is a Maze. The boys living in the Glade (who by the way also have no memory of who they are) have to run this Maze every day in order to “solve” it. They also must avoid “Grievers” who are monster-things that live in the Maze.

The characters have little to no depth and the storyline is somewhat boring and predictable–there is little to no action until the end of the book, and the ending was, well, just stupid and ruined the whole book.

Maybe the movie is better.

Check out this book on Goodreads: The Maze Runner http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6186357-the-maze-runner

BOOK REVIEW: Paper Wife: A Novel by Laila Ibrahim

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In 1923, Mei Ling’s older sister falls gravely ill a few days before her arranged marriage to a man she has never met.  Mei Ling is forced to take her’s sister place.  Leaving her family in China, Mei Ling travels to America.  In order to enter the country, Mei Ling must assume the identity of the man’s deceased wife, essentially using her immigration documents as her own (a “Paper Wife”).

the paper wife

When Mei Ling befriends a young orphan girl on the ship to America, little did she know that she was creating a bond for life.  When it is Mei Ling’s turn to leave Angel Island (the unfriendly place where immigrants were housed until their entry application was approved) she is forced to leave Siew behind.  Making good on her promise to see Siew again, Mei Ling searches for the child to ensure that she is safe, only to find that Siew’s Uncle wasn’t who he appeared to be, and that Siew herself was a paper child.  This dark revelation has a damaging impact on Mei Ling and her family, who must fight to overcome the reality of Siew’s situation.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

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35506211Cassie is a lot of things, an alcoholic, party girl, and least of all, a flight attendant–but is she a murderer too?  That’s the opening question in this entertaining book about international intrigue and espionage.

Cassie wakes up in a swanky Dubai hotel, after getting black out drunk, to find that her handsome, rich, hook-up has been murdered in the bed next to her. His throat is slashed, and there is blood Ev.ery.where.  Due to the fact that she blacked out, she has absolutely no idea whether she was the one who killed him, which leads her to do many stupid and incriminating things (i.e., wipe down her finger prints, leave the hotel without notifying anyone, etc.)

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BOOK REVIEW: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

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35068432Michelle McNamara hit a home run with this true-crime book about her obsessive search to find the serial rapist and murderer who she dubbed the Golden State Killer.  This book tells the story of her search for the elusive killer.  McNamara passed away 2 years before her book could be published — and the book was finished after her death by her husband, American actor Patton Oswalt, with the help of writers.

This brilliantly told story of the serial rapist and murderer, who is believed to have committed over 45 rapes and 12 murders,  is more disturbing then any slasher film — because it is real — it really happened.

If you read any true crime book this year, make sure it is this one.

Check out this book on Goodreads: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068432-i-ll-be-gone-in-the-dark