My Book Journal

Friday, September 19, 2025

THE BURDEN OF PROOF (Scott Turow) - September 19/25

Ugh. I hate not finishing books but I just had no choice with this one. I got to the point where I was barely reading it anymore so I figur...

Friday, September 05, 2025

GOOD GAME, NO REMATCH (Mike Drucker) - September 5/25

I was pretty into this for a while, especially since he was talking about stuff I remember like the Power Glove etc. but it just gets too d...

Monday, September 01, 2025

THE BLACK ICE (Michael Connelly) - September 1/25

I guess the problem is I didn’t find the case very interesting. Bosch is still a terrific character but I was never able to get into the ce...

Thursday, August 21, 2025

CULPABILITY (Bruce Holsinger) - August 21/25

This okay book basically kept me engaged but it’s ultimately undone by its massive overlength. The final chapter feels especially needless,...

Sunday, August 10, 2025

THE QUANTUM SPY (David Ignatius) - August 10/25

Oof. I basically didn’t read the second half of this, as I just flipped pages until it was over. It started out okay but man I lost interes...

Saturday, August 02, 2025

THE BLACK ECHO (Michael Connelly) - August 2/25

This long but entertaining book has turned me into a Bosch fan for life. He’s a really compelling character and I enjoyed the details of hi...

Friday, July 25, 2025

ATMOSPHERE (Taylor Jenkins Reid) - July 25/25

I can’t say I was too crazy about this for the first half. The decision to start with the shuttle disaster is a terrible one since we don’t...

Thursday, July 17, 2025

STICK (Elmore Leonard) - July 17/25

I was just never able to get into this. Leonard spends so much time on stuff I couldn’t have cared less about, especially financial shenani...

Thursday, July 10, 2025

ALL FOURS (Miranda July) - July 10/25

Ohh did I ever hate this. It started out okay, despite dumb things like the non-binary child (who's decision was it for them to be non-...

Tuesday, July 01, 2025

INSIGNIFICANT OTHERS (Sarah Jio) - July 1/25

It’s a fun premise that’s stretched out way beyond the breaking point; if it were a movie, she would’ve experience three or four alternate ...

Saturday, June 21, 2025

ORIGINAL SIN (Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson) - June 21/25

Pretty endless, this book. Some of it is interesting but mostly I just wanted a summary. Who needs or wants this much detail? ** out of ***...

Sunday, June 08, 2025

ALL SYSTEMS RED (Martha Wells) - June 8/25

I could not get into this in the slightest. It’s all descriptive stuff of things I couldn’t have cared less about and the book doesn’t cont...

Friday, June 06, 2025

PLAYDATE (Alex Dahl) - June 6/25

This turned into quite a page turner in its final stretch but man it was a slog getting to that point. Chapter after chapter of stuff I did...

Friday, May 30, 2025

WISH YOU WERE HERE (Renee Carlino) - May 30, 2025

Meh. This super long book periodically held my interest but mostly left me cold. Carlino just cannot write authentic sounding dialogue to s...

Saturday, May 24, 2025

THE BOOK OF JOE (Jonathan Tropper) - May 24/25

I was looking up Tropper books on here and noticed this one wasn’t listed, so I immediately grabbed it from the library. It’s a good book, ...

Thursday, May 15, 2025

PADAWAN (Kiersten White) - May 15/25

My obsession with Andor led me to the Star Wars books and this was an awful place to start. It takes place mostly on this boring planet ful...

Tuesday, May 06, 2025

GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Emily Henry) - May 6/25

Well it’s going to be a while (a long while) before I read another Emily Henry book. I just found this to be completely boring and intermin...

Friday, April 25, 2025

AUDITION (Katie Kitamura) - April 25/25

Uhh, what? This extremely pretentious novel was kind of entertaining in parts, as Kitamura does a nice job of burrowing very deeply into th...

Sunday, April 20, 2025

MICKEY7 (Edward Ashton) - April 20/25

I quite enjoyed this book. Some of the scientific concepts flew way over my head, but Ashton does a good job of establishing the characters...

Saturday, April 12, 2025

THE ONE (John Marrs) - April 12/25

I enjoyed this book and the premise/twists, but it feels really long. I guess maybe it’s because the stories kept changing every five pages...

Monday, March 31, 2025

ANNIE BOT (Sierra Greer) - March 31/25

Michael recommended this one and I thought it was decent. I kept waiting for the plot to escalate and it never did, really. This is obvious...

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER (Jeff Lindsay) - March 25/25

Though it’s too descriptive for me, I enjoyed this Dexter book probably more than the first one. The Doakes stuff was quite good, as was th...

Monday, March 17, 2025

THE LISTENERS (Jordan Tannahill) - March 17/25

I was enjoying this a lot more at the outset, before it become obsessed with the tiresome cult stuff, but I basically enjoyed this. The gri...

Saturday, March 08, 2025

SHOCK INDUCTION (Chuck Palahniuk) - March 8/25

Oh yeah, now I remember why I stopped reading this guy’s books. I couldn’t even figure out what this dumb thing was about until around half...

Monday, March 03, 2025

LONDON BRIDGES (James Patterson) - March 3/25

Definitely an odd Alex Cross story, as it feels like a spy thriller for the most part. It’s entertaining enough, I suppose, but it did feel...

Thursday, February 20, 2025

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW (Gabrielle Zevin) - February 20/25

I really loved this book. The characters are very rich and their video game exploits were generally pretty fascinating. She lost me a littl...

Thursday, February 13, 2025

MISERY (Stephen King) - February 13/25

It probably goes without saying that this book is too long. I wasn’t much interested in the book within the book, nor was I crazy about the...

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

HEART OF THE MATTER (Emily Giffin) - February 5/25

I discovered that this was the final Giffin book I hadn’t read so I was pretty excited. Anyway it’s fine. The biggest problem is that it’s ...

Sunday, January 26, 2025

ONE OF OUR KIND (Nicola Yoon) - January 26/25

There’s definitely nothing subtle about Yoon’s politics but this Get Out-like story kept me pretty hooked. The main character often seems l...

Monday, January 20, 2025

INTO THE STORM (Cecelia Ahern) - January 20/25

I remember liking some of Ahern’s other books but this one didn’t really work for me. I liked the main character and the story about her st...

Sunday, January 12, 2025

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER (Jeff Lindsay) - January 12/25

I basically enjoyed this although it definitely felt too long and Dexter’s relentless inner monologue was a bit much sometimes. But it’s an...

Saturday, January 04, 2025

CHRISTINE (Stephen King) - January 4/25

Hot damn, this is one long book. It’s a super straight forward premise that’s somehow been employed within an epic length novel. I did enjo...

Friday, December 20, 2024

FIVE DAYS (Zoe Folbigg) - December 20/24

I basically enjoyed this book but it feels really long. I liked the main characters but the periphery ones weren’t so great. And the fake b...

Thursday, December 12, 2024

LILITH (Eric Rickstad) - December 12/24

I was a little unsure about this one at the outset, mostly because Rickstad does a fairly poor job of describing the initial school shootin...

Friday, December 06, 2024

COLD STORAGE (David Koepp) - December 6/24

It’s a David Koepp joint, so I shouldn’t be surprised that this is very entertaining. It’s maybe a little longer than I might’ve preferred,...

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

A MISTAKE (Carl Shuker) - November 27/24

What is this? This is such a weird book. It’s so oddly written that I couldn’t ever even figure out what was going on or who the characters...

Sunday, November 24, 2024

WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS (Catherine Newman) - November 24/24

I basically enjoyed this but it definitely wore out its welcome. It ultimately feels very repetitive and padded out, and I just got to the ...

Saturday, November 16, 2024

THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM (Laura Dave) - November 16/24

This took a little while to grow on me but I admittedly tore through the second half in a couple of days. Vivid characters and a fairly com...

Sunday, November 10, 2024

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (Walter Mosley) - November 10/24

I was enjoying this at the beginning but then it turned into a typical detective thing with an excessively complicated plot and way too man...

Saturday, November 02, 2024

CONCLAVE (Robert Harris) - November 2/24

It took a while for me to get into this, particularly since the first third spends a lot of time on the processes and details involved, but...

Friday, October 25, 2024

DISCLAIMER (Renee Knight) - October 25/24

Though this got off to a slow start, I eventually found myself pretty riveted. I had assumed that when you find out what she did all those ...

Saturday, October 19, 2024

FINE THINGS (Danielle Steele) - October 19/24

This book feels about four times longer than necessary. And it’s full of needless digressions, including a lengthy one involving Jane’s scu...

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

INTERMEZZO (Sally Rooney) - October 8/24

Well this is some book. The stream of consciousness thing really took some time to get used to, and the book, on the whole, does feel wildl...

Monday, September 23, 2024

UPGRADE (Blake Crouch) - September 23/24

This one got off to a slower start than Crouch’s other books and I was convinced that I’d finally found a dud. But thankfully the book real...

Friday, September 13, 2024

IRENA’S VOW (Dan Gordon) - September 13/24

I probably enjoyed this more than I was expecting to, as the story moves pretty quickly and contains quite a few tense moments. *** out of *...

Wednesday, September 04, 2024

RECURSION (Blake Crouch) - August 4/24

Wow, Blake Crouch has knocked my socks off again. I was a little unsure about this one at the beginning (and the final third is a little re...

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

BAD MONKEY (Carl Hiaasen) - August 28/24

Took me a while to get through this because of our NYC trip, but I basically enjoyed it. The characters are all quite compelling and so...

Friday, August 09, 2024

THE LAST TOWN (Blake Crouch) - August 9/24

And the trilogy ends with a bang. Some of the action in the first half was a little too descriptive for my liking, but otherwise this was j...

Sunday, August 04, 2024

IT ENDS WITH US (Colleen Hoover) - August 4/24

At first I was pretty much like why am I reading this because it felt so kind of amateurish and geared towards ladies. But I really found m...

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE (Taffy Brodesser-Akner) - July 30/24

This wildly, wildly overlong book is still basically enjoyable, although I much preferred the first two stories to the last (I just didn’t ...

Friday, July 19, 2024

THE SUMMER PACT (Emily Giffin) - July 19/24

This is pretty much exactly what I wanted from Giffin. The three protagonists are quite charming and compelling, and the narrative is fast ...

Sunday, July 14, 2024

WAYWARD (Blake Crouch) - July 14/24

I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this because it seemed like the premise would lend itself to something repetitive, but Crouch tosses in twist af...

Tuesday, July 09, 2024

HIGH CRIMES (Joseph Finder) - July 9/24

This is a little on the long side but I enjoyed it. It’s a definite beach read that kept me engaged, even if the surprise revelation (ie he...

Monday, July 01, 2024

SANDWICH (Catherine Newman) - July 1/24

This very well written book really grew on me. Newman does a terrific job of establishing the characters and their personalities, and I app...

Thursday, June 27, 2024

THE BIG BAD WOLF (James Patterson) - June 27/24

This is a very solid Alex Cross thriller. All the stuff with Alex moving to the FBI was interesting, and I enjoyed the pursuit of the Wolf. ...

Friday, June 21, 2024

RANDOM HEARTS (Warren Adler) - June 21/24

I enjoyed this, although the dialogue was never entirely convincing. But I enjoyed the characters and their slow-growing bond. *** out of *...

Sunday, June 16, 2024

THE WATCHERS (A.M. Shine) - June 16/24

I read this because Michael said the movie was terrible and I was curious but I kind of liked it. It’s way, way overwritten; it almost feel...

Sunday, June 09, 2024

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW (Amor Towles) - June 9/24

This one is pretty frustrating. I read maybe a third of it before giving up and then finishing it months later. I like bits and pieces of i...

Sunday, May 26, 2024

THE GATHERING (C.J. Tudor) - May 26/24

Long but entertaining, The Gathering kept me interested throughout (even if I never was able to get a handle on the many, many supporting c...

Saturday, May 18, 2024

PINES (Blake Crouch) - May 18/24

I can’t say I was super into this at the beginning, as the book felt a little repetitive and it did get frustrating not knowing what’s goin...

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

FUNNY STORY (Emily Henry) - May 14/24

Not sure how I wound up reading two Emily Henry books so close to each other, but I basically enjoyed this. It's a little too long/over...

Monday, May 06, 2024

APPLES NEVER FALL (Liane Moriarty) - May 6/24

I enjoyed this quite a bit; the mystery is interesting and although it took a while for me to tell them apart, the various characters are a...

Friday, April 26, 2024

THE PRINCESS OF LAS VEGAS (Chris Bohjalian) - April 24/24

A solid book from Bohjalian. I didn’t always care about the mob stuff or the conspiracy stuff but the characters were compelling and the at...

Friday, April 19, 2024

A FAREWELL TO ARMS (Ernest Hemingway) - April 19/24

Man, the first half of this was so boring and such a slog. Hemingway’s stream of consciousness style is just grating and annoying, and ensu...

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

THE IDEA OF YOU (Robinne Lee) - April 9/24

Insanely long but enjoyable, The Idea of You feels like a pretty classic romcom (albeit one with jarringly graphic sex scenes). I wasn’t ab...

Saturday, March 30, 2024

DARK MATTER (Blake Crouch) - March 30/24

Wow! I was a little baffled by some of the scientific concepts in the book, but it was ultimately irrelevant given how fast-paced and engro...

Sunday, March 24, 2024

BOOK LOVERS (Emily Henry) - March 24/24

Picked this up after I had to stop reading The Grapes of Wrath, this features an inventive premise and several very agreeable characters. B...

Sunday, March 10, 2024

FLOAT (Kate Marchant) - March 10/24

Yeah, this is fine but holy hell it’s so long. The characters are appealing enough and it’s basically readable the whole way through but it...

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

DAY (Michael Cunningham) - February 28/24

Cunningham is obviously a very good writer, and I was into this for the first third, but his incredibly descriptive and verbose style event...

Sunday, February 18, 2024

ED KING (David Guterson) - February 18/24

What a weird book. Adopted dude accidentally kills his dad and marries his mom! It’s such a long, padded-out novel, though. Guterson devote...

Monday, February 05, 2024

WINDMILLS OF THE GODS (Sidney Sheldon) - February 5/24

I couldn't decide what to read, so I looked up bestsellers from 1987 and this was one of them. I'm glad I read it because it really...

Friday, January 26, 2024

FOE (Iain Reid) - January 26/24

The problem with this book is that it's obvious, super obvious, that there's a twist involving the main character but we don't ...

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

FOUR BLIND MICE (James Patterson) - January 17/24

This decent but unremarkable Alex Cross thriller has all the ingredients but somehow it never took off for me. The ongoing emphasis on the ...

Monday, January 08, 2024

RELIC (Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) - January 8/24

I started this one months ago but had to return it. This is just absurdly overlong. It's got way too many characters and there are para...

Saturday, December 30, 2023

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? (Sophie Kinsella) - December 30/23

I wanted something light after The Right Stuff and that's sure what I got. The biggest problem with this book is that it's just so ...

Monday, December 18, 2023

THE RIGHT STUFF (Tom Wolfe) - December 18/23

Yikes. I guess I was kind of into this at first but holy hell Wolfe’s stream of consciousness style becomes so grating after a while. He ju...

Sunday, November 26, 2023

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND (Rumaan Alam) - November 26/23

I read most of this on the plane to California, which was maybe not the best choice given how grim and bleak it is. (I finished it in a lin...

Thursday, November 23, 2023

OPPOSABLE THUMBS (Matt Singer) - November 23/23

I had my doubts about this one, mostly because Siskel and Ebert mean so much to me, but Opposable Thumbs won me over. It's obvious that...

Friday, November 17, 2023

STARTER VILLAIN (John Scalzi) - November 17/23

I was obviously attracted to this because of the cover, and at first I thought I'd made a horrible mistake. It's a little too wacky...

Sunday, November 12, 2023

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY (Bonnie Garmus) - November 12/23

We started watching the show and were really turned off after Calvin died, but then a copy was available so I started reading the book. I w...

Tuesday, November 07, 2023

THE EXCHANGE (John Grisham) - November 7/23

What a weird sequel. Grisham offers up a fairly static narrative that follows Mitch and company as they jump through hurdle after hurdle tr...

Thursday, October 19, 2023

BURN IT DOWN (Maureen Ryan) - October 19/23

Man on man did I really not enjoy this. Some of the stories were pretty compelling but mostly the book is Ryan giving her opinion on the su...

Thursday, October 12, 2023

ROMANTIC COMEDY (Curtis Sittenfeld) - October 12/23

I enjoyed this. The SNL inspired first half was fun and the epistolary midsection works too. The romantic final third is pretty affecting, ...

Wednesday, October 04, 2023

DOLORES CLAIBORNE (October 4/23)

I was really not into this at the beginning, with its first-person style and emphasis on Dolores’ daily activities with her boss. But I was...

Saturday, September 23, 2023

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (Gerald Petievich) - September 23/23

I definitely enjoyed this more than I thought I would. There are a lot of characters but I was generally able to keep track of them, and it...

Friday, September 15, 2023

THE TIME HAS COME (Will Leitch) - September 15/23

A definite improvement over his last book, but I still had trouble keeping some of the characters straight. And there were certain revelati...

Saturday, September 02, 2023

VIOLETS ARE BLUE (James Patterson) - September 2/23

This long but satisfying Alex Cross story contained everything I hoped it would, including short chapters and plenty of twists. I liked tha...

Thursday, August 24, 2023

THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE (Tom Hanks) - August 24/23

Holy hell, this is one long book. It takes a really long time to get going, what with the bizarre and unnecessary journalist subplot, but t...

Monday, July 24, 2023

THE LIBRARIANIST (Patrick DeWitt) - July 24/23

I was immediately set on edge by this book, as DeWitt delivers an opening stretch rife with unreasonably quirky characters. So I was surpri...

Saturday, July 15, 2023

EILEEN (Ottessa Moshfegh) - July 15/23

I basically enjoyed this, although it definitely feels too long and overwritten. But the self-loathing central character is quite compellin...

Friday, July 07, 2023

HAVE YOU SEEN HER (Catherine McKenzie) - July 7/23

Another typically bloated book from McKenzie. I basically enjoyed this, although it always feels way, way too long. I also wasn't crazy...

Friday, June 30, 2023

MR. MALCOLM'S LIST (Suzanne Allain) - June 30/23

Yeah, this is fine. I enjoyed it well enough in the first half but I did find my interest seriously waning after that. At least it's sh...

Thursday, June 22, 2023

THE PAINTED BIRD (Jerzy Kosiński) - June 22/23

I can't say I was really enjoying this in the beginning but I was eventually drawn in by the episodic narrative. It's really repeti...

Friday, June 16, 2023

DISNEY'S LAND: WALT DISNEY AND THE INVENTION OF THE AMUSEMENT PARK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Richard Snow) - June 16/23

This is one long book. It's got some really interesting parts but Snow really gets into the minutia of certain things and as a result i...

Thursday, May 25, 2023

THE COLOR OF MONEY (Walter Tevis) - May 25/23

I basically enjoyed this but I was glazing over at the very detailed descriptions of the various pool games. It was never not meaningless t...

Saturday, May 13, 2023

MR. BRIDGE (Evan S. Connell) - May 13/23

Well I didn't realize that this wasn't actually the first book but I doubt it matters much. This took me a while to get through but...

Friday, May 12, 2023

ROSES ARE RED (James Patterson) - May 12/23

Pretty much the perfect book for our beach vacation in Cocoa Beach. I tore through it over the week that we were there and Patterson's ...

Sunday, April 02, 2023

THE BIG BOUNCE (Elmore Leonard) - April 2/23

Sigh. This one started out pretty well but I just completely lost interest maybe a third of the way through. It just wasn't interesting...

Saturday, March 11, 2023

THE PLOT (Jean Hanff Korelitz) - March 11/23

This one really petered out for me. I really enjoyed the first half, with its emphasis on Jake's rise to fame and his tentative relatio...

Saturday, February 25, 2023

ORIGIN (Dan Brown) - February 25/23

It really did feel like I was reading this forever, even through our Orlando trip, mostly because it feels at least double the length it sh...

Thursday, January 26, 2023

FALLING (T.J. Newman) - January 26/23

I wanted a page-turner and that's what I got, although Newman isn't quite as strong a writer as I would've hoped - which ensure...

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

KRAMER VS. KRAMER (Avery Corman) - January 18/23

I definitely enjoyed this book but Corman does have a tendency to repeat himself, as certain chunks dwell on Ted’s day to day life with his...

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

BABY PROOF (Emily Giffin) - January 11/23

I wanted something light and this is definitely that but it's also way too long. This book feels about twice as long as it should be an...

Sunday, January 01, 2023

THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES (Michel Houellebecq) - January 1/23

Yeah, this book is too smart for me. I enjoyed some of the character stuff but Houellebecq devotes large swaths of the novel to impenetrabl...

Sunday, December 11, 2022

TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY (Linwood Barclay) - December 11/22

Well, I was in the mood for a page-turner and this certainly didn't disappoint. It's definitely longer than it needs to be, but it ...

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS (James Burrows with Eddy Friedfeld) - November 30/22

It took me a while to get through this but I basically enjoyed it. Burrows tells a bunch of interesting stories about the shows he's wo...

Friday, November 18, 2022

FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING (Matthew Perry) - November 18/22

I basically enjoyed this, although it was definitely a little repetitive in terms of his addiction struggles. I would've loved more sto...

Friday, November 11, 2022

HOW LUCKY (Will Leitch) - November 11/22

What a disappointment. It felt like I was reading this forever; I just couldn’t connect with any of it, and the book felt like something be...

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Paul Tremblay) - October 18/22

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have spoiled the upcoming Shyamalan movie for myself by reading this. It's a decent book but it...

Saturday, October 15, 2022

MEANT TO BE (Emily Giffin) - October 15/22

This typically easy read from Giffin features two likeable (albeit fairly one-dimensional) characters and I enjoyed reading about their bur...

Saturday, October 08, 2022

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (Ray Bradbury) - October 8/22

Good lord what a slog. It almost feels abstract in its happenings and there’s nothing to connect to from start to finish. I can see how Ste...

Sunday, September 25, 2022

PLEASE JOIN US (Catherine McKenzie) - September 25/22

This is a typically erratic thriller from McKenzie but I basically enjoyed it. The characters are all fairly interesting and the plot does...

Friday, September 16, 2022

WOMEN TALKING (Miriam Toews) - September 16/22

Well, this clearly isn’t for me. I was really struggling through most of this because there are so many characters and I never really got a...

Saturday, September 10, 2022

WHITE NOISE (Don DeLillo) - September 10/22

Well, I was really not enjoying this for the first half. It’s just so rambling and meandering and there’s no plot or forward momentum. But ...

Sunday, August 28, 2022

HEAT 2 (Michael Mann & Meg Gardiner) - August 28/22

Wow, I really enjoyed this. I loved all the prequel stuff and most of the sequel stuff, although I wasn't crazy about the complicated C...

Sunday, August 14, 2022

BOY A (Jonathan Trigell) - August 14/22

I mostly enjoyed this but golly is it long and padded out. Trigell gets awfully descriptive from time to time and offers up whole chapters ...

Monday, August 08, 2022

TRACY FLICK CAN’T WIN (Tom Perrotta) - August 8/22

This very satisfying follow up did take a while to grow on me, admittedly. Perrotta introduces a whole mess of new characters and takes his...

Thursday, August 04, 2022

ELECTION (Tom Perrotta) - August 4/22

Yep, this is it. A real strong contender for my favorite book of all time. Perrotta just does a masterful job of establishing several very ...

Monday, August 01, 2022

THE LIONESS (Chris Bohjalian) - August 1/22

I wound up having to read this one in two chunks, months apart. The first half of this book is really an endurance test, as Bohjalian loads...

Saturday, July 30, 2022

SLIVER (Ira Levin) - July 30/22

This one started out a little iffy, there are so many periphery characters that it becomes impossible to keep track of them all, but eventu...

Saturday, July 23, 2022

UNIVERSAL HARVESTER (John Darnielle) - July 23/22

What in the world...? This started out with plenty of promise, with the narrative following a videostore clerk who stumbles upon sinister c...

Thursday, July 14, 2022

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS (Jessamine Chan) - July 14/2022

And on the other end of the spectrum is this absolutely interminable and loathsome novel. It started out okay but once I realized what the ...

Sunday, July 03, 2022

STATION ELEVEN (Emily St. John Mandel) - July 3/22

Wow! What a book! Station Eleven hooked me right from the jump and although I wasn’t sure about it after an initial flashback stretch (it s...

Sunday, June 26, 2022

RUN ROSE RUN (Dolly Parton and James Patterson) - June 26/22

I was in the mood for something fast-paced and with short chapters, so this pretty much fit the bill. It's definitely too long but I wa...

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

THE BIG DOOR PRIZE (M.O. Walsh) - May 25/22

Yeesh, this was difficult to get through. Walsh is kind of going for a Perrotta thing with the small town and its assortment of offbeat cha...

Saturday, April 30, 2022

CUTTER AND BONE (Newton Thornburg) - April 30/22

This fairly erratic book certainly kept me gripped for large chunks, as Thornburg sure paints a vivid picture of these two completely capti...

Monday, April 18, 2022

NO EXIT (Taylor Adams) - April 18/22

Wow! This is definitely the most entertaining and fast paced book I've read in quite some time. It starts out a little slow but the thi...

Friday, April 08, 2022

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE (V.E. Schwab) - April 8/22

Well this one is sure frustrating. It took a while to get going but I eventually got pretty invested in the central character and her explo...

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

SIX WEEKS TO LIVE (Catherine McKenzie) - March 23/22

It felt like I was reading this forever. The plot is fine but McKenzie stretches everything to its breaking point, to the extent that the n...

Thursday, March 10, 2022

CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER (Ann Beattie) - March 10/22

I'm pretty conflicted on this one. On the one hand, it's absolutely a vivid portrait of a fairly memorable figure and Beattie does ...

Saturday, February 26, 2022

ALL WE EVER WANTED (Emily Giffin) - February 26/22

After a couple of lousy books, I was in the mood for something brisk and easy to read so I figured an Emily Giffin book was exactly what th...

Thursday, February 17, 2022

THE NATURAL (Bernard Malamud) - February 18/22

Ugh, this was such a slog, which is weird because it's relatively short. But Malamud's insanely wordy and descriptive prose drains ...

Tuesday, February 08, 2022

BLACK SUNDAY (Thomas Harris) - February 8/22

I can't say I was super into this at the outset, as Harris delivers a slow-moving thriller that's just way too procedural-like for ...

Monday, January 31, 2022

THE MAID (Nita Prose) - January 31/22

Read for the Spooner book club, I really enjoyed this one. It's a very brisk read that features at its core an incredibly likeable and ...

Thursday, January 27, 2022

SHINING THROUGH (Susan Isaacs) - January 27/22

Well damn, this is one long book. I liked parts of it but it felt longer than a Game of Thrones book. She doesn't even become a spy unt...

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

STATE OF TERROR (Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny) - January 12/22

Read for the Spooner book club, I enjoyed this but holy god is it ever long. The book generally feels twice as long as necessary and it doe...

Saturday, January 01, 2022

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD (Jack Thorne) - January 1/22

It's definitely weird reading a script but I got used to that pretty quick. The time-travel-heavy storyline is pretty irresistible, and...

Thursday, December 30, 2021

THE LOST DAUGHTER (Elena Ferrante) - December 30/21

There are some interesting ideas here but they're crushed beneath the weight of Ferrante's ponderous and pretentious writing style....

Thursday, December 23, 2021

THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT (Walter Tevis) - December 23/21

Read this for the Spooner book club and I really enjoyed it. Tevis does tend to go overboard in describing the various chess games, and I g...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (William Lindsay Gresham) - December 14/21

I definitely enjoyed parts of this book but mostly it's way too overwritten and sluggish. Gresham does a good job of establishing that ...

Wednesday, December 08, 2021

DUNE (Frank Herbert) - December 8/21

Good lord, what a slog. I didn't mind the first half of this, even though I was pretty baffled through most of it, but man the second h...

Sunday, November 28, 2021

THE HUSTLER (Walter Tevis) - November 28/21

I definitely enjoyed this book, although it's occasionally just a little too descriptive and gets a little too focused on the minutia o...

Saturday, November 20, 2021

THE MOONSHINE WAR (Elmore Leonard) - November 20/21

Big ol' meh for this one. I was entertained in parts, that scene where the thug makes a dude and his lady strip in the restaurant felt ...

Saturday, November 13, 2021

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (J.K. Rowling)

This book is, like all the books in this series, probably longer than it needs to be, but honestly I was so enthralled for most of the secon...

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (October 27/21)

Like the rest of the series, this is probably longer than it needs to be but I was hardly aware of it once the book's final third rolle...

Monday, October 11, 2021

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU (Sally Rooney) - October 11/21

I basically enjoyed this but it's just so long and unfocused. Rooney kind of rambles and offers up several very long paragraphs that ar...

Saturday, September 25, 2021

HOUR OF THE WITCH (Chris Bohjalian) - September 25/21

Damn, I was reading this one for what felt like forever. It's a good book and the characters are pretty vivid, but it's just so dar...

Friday, August 27, 2021

THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME (Laura Dave) - August 27/21

I basically enjoyed this but it's pretty generic and paint-by-numbers as far as stories like this go. The book, as a result, unfolds al...

Friday, August 20, 2021

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (J.K. Rowling) - August 20/21

This is the longest book in the series and it sure feels like it. As expected, Rowling employs an episodic structure that results in a mids...

Friday, August 06, 2021

THE GRADUATE (Charles Webb) - August 6/21

I guess I didn't remember the movie at all, because most of what happened in this book surprised me. Webb's writing style is certai...

Sunday, August 01, 2021

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (Larry McMurtry) - Aug. 1/21

In the end, I did enjoy this book, although it's just so darn long and so much emphasis is placed on Aurora's relationships with he...

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

THE TROOP (Nick Cutter) - July 20/21

I think the best way to describe this is Lord of the Flies meets The Ruins, and on that level it works. I was concerned that the emphasis o...

Friday, July 16, 2021

THE LIES THAT BIND (Emily Giffin) - July 16/21

I had started reading the Poisonwood Bible for the Lexis book club but man it felt so much like work and then I got to a chapter from the p...

Monday, July 12, 2021

BROKEN (IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY) - July 12/21

Oh, Jenny Lawson. Half of this book is pointless, rambling, stream-of-consciousness bouts of silliness that inspire nothing in me aside fro...

Thursday, July 08, 2021

THE RUINS (Scott Smith) - July 8/21

I wanted something super grim and bleak after Barry's death and this certainly fit the bill. It's a little too long but man Smith r...

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS (Paolo Giordano) - June 30/21

I was super into this at first and the two main characters are certainly quite compelling, but Giordano's overly flowery prose is somet...

Saturday, May 29, 2021

MADE FOR LOVE (Alissa Nutting) - May 29/21

I'm pretty conflicted about this one. The first half of the book is almost intolerably quirky, and I skimmed over everything involving ...

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

BRAT (Andrew McCarthy) - May 19/21

Such a breezy read. As expected, McCarthy is a very good writer who certainly knows how to keep things interesting, although I could've...

Monday, May 17, 2021

THE GOLDFINCH (Donna Tartt) - May 17/21

Wow, this took a while. (Just over a year and 61 returns/checkouts from the library.) Anyway, it's obviously extremely well written but...

Monday, April 26, 2021

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS (Stephen Graham Jones) - April 26/21

Wow, what a frustrating book. I had originally started this and stopped it after a few chapters because Jones' style is so obnoxious, a...

Thursday, April 15, 2021

THE SWITCH (Elmore Leonard) - April 15/21

I picked this because I assumed it would be a short, breezy read but not so much. It's entertaining enough in spots, but the narrative ...

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (Mitch Albom) - March 23/21

This kind of compelling but not exactly enthralling book is short but it feels like it could be shorter. Still, Morrie is very compelling a...

Thursday, March 18, 2021

BEHIND HER EYES (Sarah Pinborough) - March 18/21

This book is almost absurdly overlong, and it's clear that it's building towards some big twist but man oh man does Pinborough pad ...

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (Anne Tyler) - March 3/21

This almost insanely overlong book nevertheless won my over with its exceedingly vivid, affable characters, and I legit wasn't sure who...

Sunday, February 21, 2021

A BRIGHT RAY OF DARKNESS (Ethan Hawke) - February 21/21

Meh. I didn't hate this, I guess, but damn is Hawke pretty pretentious. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes play stuff and the main charact...

Saturday, February 13, 2021

ANXIOUS PEOPLE (Fredrik Backman) - February 13/21

Read as part of the Lexis book club, I definitely enjoyed this one. It's much, much longer than it needs to be, but Backman has packed ...

Saturday, February 06, 2021

NEWS OF THE WORLD (Paulette Jiles) - February 6/21

This erratic yet ultimately rewarding book admittedly did test my patience here and there, as Jiles' Cormac McCarthy-like prose is occa...

Saturday, January 30, 2021

HEARTBURN (Nora Ephron) - January 30/21

I wasn't too crazy about this at first mostly because Ephron tends to write in a kind of stream-of-consciousness style and emphasizes s...

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY (Matt Haig) - January 19/21

Read this for the Lexis book club. It turned out to be a lot more conventional than I was expecting and I have to say that while I did enjo...

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

AFTER HOURS (Edwin Torres) - January 13/21

Yikes, this was a nightmare. I started it last year sometime and was put off by the main character's broken English. I wound up skimmin...

Wednesday, January 06, 2021

GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT (Lily Brooks-Dalton) - January 6/21

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it's really well written and the various characters are all developed exceedingl...

Friday, January 01, 2021

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (J.K. Rowling) - January 1/21

I finally finished it! Holy hell is this a long book. And the problem is, much of the first half and midsection is devoted to fairly tediou...

Sunday, December 20, 2020

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY (Matt Ruff) - December 20/20

Definitely felt like I was reading this one for a while, since it has some admittedly high highs but more low lows. Certain chapters are su...

Sunday, December 13, 2020

SAINT JACK (Paul Theroux) - December 13/20

Man, it took me a while to finish this one. I think Theroux is a very good writer but his style often gets in the way of his ability to tel...

Monday, November 30, 2020

CAPE FEAR (John D. MacDonald) - November 30/20

It's interesting how different this turned out to be from both films, especially the ending, but I definitely enjoyed this book. Max Cad...

Thursday, November 26, 2020

THE ANSWER IS... (Alex Trebek) - November 26/20

I probably enjoyed this book more than I was expecting to, even though it does contain a heavy emphasis on Trebek's upbringing and earl...

Sunday, November 22, 2020

A SIMPLE PLAN (Scott Smith) - November 22/20

This book is clearly much, much longer than necessary, and yet I was riveted for most of it. It's interesting that the narrative reache...

Saturday, November 14, 2020

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING (Delia Owens) - November 14/20

Read this on mom's recommendation and it's good. It's very, very long, and there are some stretches that are just way too descr...

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (Donald Ray Pollock) - October 28/20

This one got off to a slow start but I eventually found it to be quite the page turner. Pollock does an effective job of establishing the m...

Monday, October 05, 2020

ARE SNAKES NECESSARY (Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman) - October 5/20

This ultimately does feel like a new De Palma movie, although it does take a while to get going, as De Palma and Lehman introduce a whole m...

Monday, September 21, 2020

YOU CAN'T CATCH ME (Catherine McKenzie) - September 21/20

I can't say I enjoyed this too much, ultimately. I thought the main storyline was actually pretty decent and even exciting, but McKenzi...

Thursday, September 03, 2020

I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Iain Reid) - September 3/20

Well, okay. I'm really not sure what to make of this. It's pretty well written and there were definitely some really interesting pa...

Thursday, August 27, 2020

THE INNOCENT MAN (John Grisham) - August 27/20

I feel like I've had this book forever, but it's actually not bad. I wasn't super into the courtroom stuff - too many names to ...

Thursday, August 20, 2020

THE WHISPER MAN (Alex North) - August 20/20

This impressive thriller is a little too long, but I was generally engrossed from start to finish and the characters (and mystery) were all ...

Friday, August 14, 2020

LEGENDS OF THE FALL (Jim Harrison) - August 14/20

Oddly enough, I liked Legends of the Fall the least out of these three short stories (which I read months apart). Harrison's poetic and...

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK (Michelle McNamara) - August 12/20

I think I have to accept that the true-crime genre just isn't for me. I enjoyed certain portions of this book, mostly when McNamara tol...

Monday, August 03, 2020

THE SUNLIT NIGHT (Rebecca Dinerstein) - August 3/20

I'll be honest, I was seriously skimming the second half of this book. But that's only because the first half is pretty much unreada...

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

A VERY PUNCHABLE FACE (Colin Jost) - July 28/20

A typically erratic memoir. I was less-than-impressed by his childhood, but I definitely enjoyed his SNL stories and even some of his other ...

Friday, July 24, 2020

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT (Daniel Kehlmann) - July 24/20

This novel - well, novella, really - took a while to really grab my attention and Kehlmann doesn't help matters by initially focusing on...

Sunday, July 12, 2020

A KISS BEFORE DYING (Ira Levin) - July 12/20

Ira Levin knocks it out of the park again with this engrossing and impressively shocking/dark thriller. I will admit certain things didn...

Monday, June 29, 2020

THE RED LOTUS (Chris Bohjalian) - June 29/20

This is probably one of Bohjalian's better books in a while, as it's quite readable and even suspenseful in spots. It's too long...

Sunday, June 21, 2020

STAY WHERE I CAN SEE YOU (Katrina Onstad) - June 21/20

It took me a good long while to get into this one - maybe half the book? - but I eventually found myself quite enjoying Stay Where I Can See...

Sunday, June 14, 2020

NORMAL PEOPLE (Sally Rooney) - June 14/20

There's no doubt that Sally Rooney is a really talented writer. Normal People is packed with interesting, cogent observations and a pair...

Monday, June 08, 2020

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE (Wally Lamb) - June 8/20

Good lord, this must be one of the longest books I've ever read. I'll admit, though, that I found I Know This Much Is True surprisin...

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

THE SHINING GIRLS (Lauren Beukes) - May 19/20

I'll admit I didn't think I was going to get into this, as the first little bit is so baffling and so off-putting that I skimmed thr...

Saturday, May 09, 2020

FIRST COMES LOVE (Emily Giffin) - May 9/20

I just wanted something readable and entertaining, so I figured I'd turn back to ol' Emily Giffin. And while this book is definitely...

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

THE GRIFTERS (Jim Thompson) - April 29/20

I feel like this should've been better than it was. There's some interesting stuff here and the three main characters are interestin...

Friday, April 17, 2020

THE NEW ME (Halle Butler) - April 17/20

Chose this one on a whim from the Best Bets section and I really enjoyed it. Butler delivers a fairly vivid portrait of a twentysomething te...

Thursday, April 02, 2020

THE DOMINO PRINCIPLE (Adam Kennedy) - April 2/20

I basically enjoyed this one, though it's occasionally a little too descriptive for its own good. But there are definitely some exciting...

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

LOGAN'S RUN (William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson) - March 24/20

This one started out pretty okay (I liked the initial descriptions of the futuristic world and of Logan's work), but once the main chara...

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

THE CALL OF THE WILD (Jack London) - March 11/20

Yeah, no, I hated this. It's all descriptive paragraphs and I really couldn't have cared less. * out of ****

Friday, March 06, 2020

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS (Sally Rooney) - March 6/20

I feel like I was reading this forever, but nevertheless I kind of liked it. Rooney does a nice job of establishing the various characters, ...

Monday, February 17, 2020

JUST FLY AWAY (Andrew McCarthy) - February 17/20

Though I ultimately wound up enjoying this quite a bit, Just Fly Away is a kind of generic Young Adult novel that doesn't really have st...

Tuesday, February 04, 2020

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (A.J. Finn) - February 4/20

There's nothing terribly original about this book but I nevertheless found it quite enjoyable (if a little overlong). The characters wer...

Saturday, January 25, 2020

THE HOT ROCK (Donald E. Westlake) - January 25/20

Enjoyed this one quite a bit. It's got a few sluggish stretches, but Westlake does a superb job of establishing the characters and keepi...

Saturday, January 18, 2020

THE GETAWAY (Jim Thompson) - January 18/20

I was somehow never entirely able to get into this one, despite a solid assortment of characters and a smattering of compelling scenes (eg D...

Friday, January 10, 2020

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (George V. Higgins) - January 10/20

Finally, an entertaining book. I'll admit it took me a while to get a handle on the various characters and there was a stretch near the ...

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

THE CHEMIST (Stephenie Meyer) - January 7/20

I liked the characters and the story here, but god almighty was this thing long. It felt like I was reading it forever, and certain stretche...

Friday, December 20, 2019

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (Chris Bohjalian) - December 20/19

This typically readable work by Bohjalian boasts a compelling central character and a decent mystery, although, in typical Bohjalian fashion...

Friday, December 13, 2019

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS (Khaled Hosseini) - December 13/19

This is definitely a good book with some riveting moments, but overall I found it a little too long and a little too descriptive. *** out of...

Friday, November 29, 2019

I WISH YOU HAPPY (Kerry Anne King) - November 29/19

Sigh. I can't say I enjoyed this too much. It's relatively short but it felt endless, basically. The characters are fine, if a littl...

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

RED RISING (Pierce Brown) - November 13/19

Oh, no. Oh, dear. Read this based on Jason's recommendation and it's the last time I'll read something he likes. This was just a...

Thursday, October 31, 2019

THE ICE STORM (Ricky Moody) - October 31/19

I definitely remember enjoying this more than I did - Moody's extremely wordy style can be grating - but I will admit that Moody does a ...

Saturday, October 12, 2019

PARIS FOR ONE & OTHER STORIES (Jojo Moyes) - October 12/19

A breezy and quick read, Paris for One is charming in precisely the way I might've expected based on the other books' of Moyes I...

Sunday, September 29, 2019

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (Thomas Harris) - September 29/19

There are a few overly descriptive stretches here and there, but for the most part, this is an exceedingly entertaining and occasionally thr...

Thursday, September 05, 2019

THE SILENCE (Tim Lebbon) - September 5/19

Out of A Quiet Place and Bird Box, The Silence feels the most creepily possible and plausible, so I enjoyed the book on the whole. I did thi...

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE (Maria Semple) - August 21/19

Well, gosh, I really couldn't stand this one. It's just so quirky and the epistolary structure just doesn't work at all and I ha...

Friday, August 09, 2019

PRESUMED INNOCENT (Scott Turow) - August 9/19

I mean, it's a good book, but boy howdy is it ever long. Turow offers up an incredibly dense narrative packed with descriptive paragrap...

Thursday, July 25, 2019

TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN (John Green) - July 25/19

This is a pretty decent effort from Green. I definitely admired how accurately (and scarily) he portrayed Aza's occasionally debilitatin...

Sunday, July 14, 2019

WHO DO YOU LOVE (Jennifer Weiner) - July 14/19

I wasn't super into this at the beginning, with the long stretch about the two characters as kids, but this book definitely grew on me a...

Friday, July 05, 2019

THE PARTY (Robyn Harding) - July 5/19

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. At first it seemed like another generic Big Little Lies-esque drama but I definitely grew mo...

Friday, June 28, 2019

STILL ME (Jojo Moyes) - June 28/19

Of course this book is way longer than it needed to be but I nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit. I really found myself getting invested in ...

Friday, June 21, 2019

WHO IS MICHAEL OVITZ? (Michael Ovitz) - June 21/19

I certainly enjoyed this book in the first half, as Ovitz includes pretty interesting stories about the formation of CAA and the making of m...

Monday, June 10, 2019

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE (Celeste Ng) - June 10/19

The middle of this really long book was pretty much amazing. I was completely enthralled and the characters all became incredibly vivid. Thi...

Monday, June 03, 2019

MAGIC (William Goldman) - June 3/19

This got off to a pretty disastrous start, as Goldman delivers a kaleidoscopic/impressionistic opening stretch that makes exceedingly little...

Monday, May 27, 2019

LOVE MAY FAIL (Matthew Quick) - May 27/19

I'll admit I wasn't enjoying this too much in its first half. It's super long and padded-out and the characters, mostly Mr. Vern...

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

ELEANOR & PARK (Rainbow Rowell) - May 15/19

I definitely really enjoyed this one. I might even have loved it. Rowell does a superb job of capturing the feeling of first love, and the t...

Tuesday, May 07, 2019

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - May 7/19

Guess I hate F. Scott Fitzgerald. This thing is the worst. It's super pretentious and the changing styles ensures it feels like it's...

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

EATERS OF THE DEAD (Michael Crichton) - April 30/19

I think this might be my least favorite Crichton. It's just boring and the inclusion of tedious footnotes only exacerbates the tedium. *...

Friday, April 26, 2019

VIDEO NASTIES (Duncan Ralston) - April 26/19

Big ol' meh on this one. None of the stories really stood out, and although some of them had some good moments, Ralston would mostly bot...

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

KNOTS & CROSSES (Ian Rankin) - April 23/19

I can't say I was enjoying this a ton initially, as the book comes off as a kind of overwritten crime novel stuffed with underdeveloped ...

Monday, April 15, 2019

50 (Avery Corman) - April 15/19

I definitely enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. There are a few spots that drag but otherwise this was a pretty engaging drama ab...

Friday, April 05, 2019

BIRD BOX (Josh Malerman) - April 5/19

I really enjoyed this. Some of the periphery characters were hard to pin down but I dug the out-there premise and there were definitely some...

Monday, April 01, 2019

BINARY (Michael Crichton) - April 1/19

As expected, Binary contains an uninvolving first little bit devoted to technical stuff, but I'll admit that I was quite involved once t...

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

THE AFTERMATH (Rhidian Brook) - March 27/19

This is a decent post-war drama and I enjoyed the exploits of the three main characters (and the twist that the German guy's wife was st...

Thursday, March 14, 2019

THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 (Ruth Ware) - March 14/19

Definitely enjoyed this fairly forgettable thriller. It moved quickly and there were some decent twists, although I did think the whole thin...

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN - J.K. Rowling (March 6/19)

This one took me a while, a long while. It seriously drags in the middle, as Rowling devotes chapter after chapter to Harry and the gang...

Thursday, February 28, 2019

THE STRANGER BESIDE ME (Ann Rule) - February 28/19

I mean, this book is absurdly long. Rule goes into tremendous detail about things I didn't really care about, but on the other hand, the...

Saturday, February 09, 2019

POIROT INVESTIGATES (Agatha Christie) - February 9/19

Well, okay, it's safe to say I'm done with Poirot forever after this one. I hated all these stories. * out of ****

Sunday, December 30, 2018

THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY (Patricia Highsmith) - December 20/18

Well, okay, I guess Patricia Highsmith isn't for me. I liked parts of this book but god almighty is it meandering in stretches. I can...

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

EVERY BREATH (Nicholas Sparks) - December 11/18

Ehhh. I liked the core of this story but Sparksy has taken what could've been a pretty great novella and padded it out to a frankly unre...

Thursday, November 29, 2018

SPRINGFIELD CONFIDENTIAL (Mike Reiss & Mathew Klickstein) - November 29/18

This padded-out but interesting book offers interesting Simpsons tidbits and also an overview of comedy (as Reiss sees it). He's got a b...

Monday, November 26, 2018

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB (David Lagercrantz) - November 26/18

It felt like I was reading this forever (even on my honeymoon!) but good lord does this thing drag. The Millennium series was always way wor...

Saturday, November 03, 2018

HELLO, SUNSHINE (Laura Dave) - November 3/18

This decent but completely unremarkable book isn’t as charming as the last Dave book I read but the characters are decent and I was basicall...

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

THE SANCTUARY (Raymond Khoury) - October 24/18

Well I’ve hit rock bottom with this one. TNhis super generic and absurdly padded out thriller contain virtually nothing of interest and hone...

Friday, October 12, 2018

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (Michael Crichton) - October 12/18

Yikes. This one was a bit of a slog. Crichton delves deep into the conventions of the time but it's all so tedious. The character stuff ...

Tuesday, October 09, 2018

I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM (Harlan Ellison) - October 9/18

I'm a little on the fence with this one. On the one hand, I really like Ellison's style; the dude was clearly very talented, and his...

Thursday, October 04, 2018

THE RIVER WILD (Denis O'Neill) - October 4/18

This short book felt longer than a Stephen King novel (ie it's absurdly descriptive). I can't really say I enjoyed any part of this ...

Saturday, September 22, 2018

TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE (Jenny Han) - September 22/18

This affable romcom is probably a little longer than it needs to be, but the characters are all quite likeable and I enjoyed the love triang...

Friday, September 14, 2018

CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Kevin Kwan) - September 14/18

Okay, I'm not sure why this book is literally double the length it needed to be, but Kwan's penchant for describing the hell out of ...

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

A SIMPLE FAVOR (Darcey Bell) - August 28/18

This decent Girl on the Train knockoff isn't exactly super well written and it meanders like crazy, but it's basically readable. **1...

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST (Emily M. Danforth) - August 21/18

What the fuck. How is this book almost as long as a Game of Thrones novel? The main character doesn't even make it to the camp until hal...

Thursday, August 09, 2018

SUNBURN (Laura Lippman) - August 9/18

This is a relatively short book but my god did it feel endless. Lippman tries so, so hard to sound tough and hard boiled but she really and ...

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

MYSTIC RIVER (Dennis Lehane) - July 25/18

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting something this engrossing. I actually sat there and read about 30% of the book in one sitting, which ...

Thursday, July 19, 2018

FORGOTTEN (Catherine McKenzie) - July 19/18

The first McKenzie book I actually didn't like too much. The characters are all fine, but this is just such a thin story and it seems to...

Saturday, July 07, 2018

THE THING ABOUT LOVE (Julie James) - July 7/18

Sayward picked this one and I was a little skeptical at first, especially coming right after the Goldman book (ie James isn't quite up t...

Saturday, June 30, 2018

MARATHON MAN (William Goldman) - June 30/18

I'll admit I was pretty bored for probably the first half of this, as Goldman's overdone writing style is compounded by a narrative ...

Saturday, June 23, 2018

MRS. FLETCHER (Tom Perrotta) - June 23/18

Perrotta does it again with this incredibly entertaining book packed with vivid, three-dimensional characters. I could've kept reading a...

Monday, June 18, 2018

THE DEAD ZONE (Stephen King) - June 18/18

Definitely one of the better King books I've read, but, of course, too long. There's a lot of padding in the middle of the novel and...

Thursday, May 31, 2018

BRAVE NEW WORLD (Aldous Huxley) - May 31/18

I enjoyed the first and last bits of this novel, but the midsection, detailing the "savage" and his origins, is so dull I was glaz...

Saturday, May 19, 2018

ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS (Elan Mastai) - May 19/18

I really enjoyed large swaths of this book, even though Mastai has a predilection for going way over board in terms of describing things. He...

Saturday, May 12, 2018

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (Arundhati Roy) - May 12/18

Sorry, Sayward. Nope. This is way too flowery and descriptive for my liking. Roy is just flat-out in love with her writing to the degree tha...

Saturday, April 28, 2018

READY PLAYER ONE (Ernest Cline) - April 28/18

Though it's definitely too long, I ultimately wound up really enjoying this book. The first quarter of the book is admittedly too descri...

Friday, April 13, 2018

MIDNIGHT SUN (Trish Cook) - April 13/18

This really fast paced read doesn't bring much new to the teen tearjerker genre but I really liked the characters and I'll admit I d...

Monday, April 09, 2018

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (Kazuo Ishiguro) - April 9/18

I ultimately did enjoy this quite a bit, but I do feel like the story is occasionally bogged down with details I didn't care about (eg p...

Sunday, March 25, 2018

SPIN (Catherine McKenzie) - March 25/18

Ok, so this was way, way too long, but I nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit. The characters were all pretty vivid and interesting and I was...

Saturday, March 10, 2018

LITTLE WOMEN (Louisa May Alcott) - March 10/18

Well, I only read Little Women and not Good Wives, so I didn't get to enjoy any of the sisters' deaths. (I think Jo dies?) But man d...

Monday, March 05, 2018

FIFTY SHADES FREED (E.L. James) - March 5/18

E.L. James, what are you doing? I basically enjoyed this but it's literally the length of like four books. And as usual, the sex stuff g...

Friday, February 09, 2018

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM (Simon Brett) - February 9/18

This very entertaining book kept me interested from start to finish, although I will admit it did take a while to get going. I suppose I was...

Friday, January 12, 2018

NOT JUST ME (Lisa Jakub) - January 12/18

Read this to and from Hong Kong. It's fine, I guess. Jakub lists the various anxiety disorders and the methods used to treat them, and s...

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

EASY GO (Michael Crichton) - December 26/17

This very early Crichton novel feels quite slight but on the whole I was entertained. It's a decent premise that's executed well, an...

Monday, December 18, 2017

SHARP OBJECTS (Gillian Flynn) - December 18/17

I really enjoyed this one. The stuff with Camille's family is awfully quirky, almost excessively so, but the resolution was quite compel...

Monday, December 11, 2017

A BEND IN THE ROAD (Nicholas Sparks) - December 11/17

Sure, this felt like it was written from a template but I enjoyed it regardless. The characters are very vivid and I was caught up in the lo...

Tuesday, December 05, 2017

MURDER ON THE LINKS (Agatha Christie) - December 5/17

Yeah, I'm thinking Christie isn't for me. Or at least the Poirot books aren't, anyway. I was digging this at the beginning but i...

Thursday, November 23, 2017

THE STAND (Stephen King) - November 23/17

My crazy brain wouldn't let me not finish that and although the first half was pretty much interminable, I will admit I found myself rea...

Saturday, November 04, 2017

IT (Stephen King) - November 4/17

Jesus H. Christ, Steve. I think I've been working on this one off and on for like three months and honestly it felt endless. The bones o...

Friday, October 06, 2017

GERALD'S GAME (Stephen King) - October 6/17

It's hard to believe there was ever a time I considered King my favorite writer. Gerald's Game is okay in parts but mostly it feels ...

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE (Bel Kaufman) - September 20/17

I really hated this at first because of the annoying style, but I'll admit it grew on me a little. The book is still seriously erratic, ...

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

THE WEDDING PARTY (Robyn Carr) - September 12/17

So I was struggling through It and even Up the Down Staircase when I decided I needed some chick lit and this certainly fit the bill. It...

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER (Stephen King) - July 20/17

Well this was an ordeal. King offers up an upsidedown world with next to no context and places a one-dimensional character at the center of ...