Isaac's Storm

by Erik Larson

The full title of this book is Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, which is quite a mouthful, but really sums up the whole thing in a nutshell. Isaac is Isaac Cline, one of the earliest meteorologists in the fledgling US Weather Bureau who was sent to Galveston TX as their expert weatherman. The time is 1900 when Galveston was trying to win the battle with Houston over which city would be THE elite place to dwell. A good chunk of this book is devoted to such struggles over making a name and a place and an impact, which is exactly what the US Weather Bureau was trying to do at the time, with men such as Cline who wanted to establish themselves as an elite forecasting group.

The first portion of the book details a history of Galveston, the weather bureau and advances in forecasting. Midway through you finally get to the hurricane that put a damper on all of it. Due to some unfortunate but prevalent beliefs in 1900's America, Galveston went from glory to devastation in a matter of hours. It is the assertion of Larson that many lives could have been spared but for some egotism, however the destruction of the city would have been the same.

This book is very typical of Larson's others, so if you like those this would be a good read for you.

The Truth According to Us

by Annie Barrows

A story about a small town and the Federal Writer's Project, which the FDR administration put into place during the Great Depression in order to fund & support writers (you're welcome, I won't go there). Although this story had a lot going on, it was slow moving. The daughter of a US Senator, Layla Beck rebels against her father's wishes for her future, so he sends her off to live among the commoners in the hopes of teaching her a lesson. She is assigned to the town of Macedonia, WV where she dives right into the middle of the strange happenings of the founding family.

The bulk of The Truth According to Us is told from the perspective of the 12 year-old Willa Romeyn as she too is trying to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding her family. And that is where I think the book falls flat, because there are just too many of them to follow. Willa's father is mixed up in some bootlegging venture as well as having some shady past related to the family business. One aunt has two secret loves, two others have some convoluted marriages and living arrangements, there's an old arson mystery and some dead people who are haunting everyone. Oh, and there's more! For some reason, the entire town resents this family, there is some sibling rivalry between the two brothers, there's some sneaking and spying and flirtations and on and on it goes.

In general, Barrows does capture the feel of a small town but spreads her story too thin to capture interest in the people living there. It's just ok.

From the Corner of His Eye

by Dean Koontz

Within the first few pages of From the Corner of His Eye   a tragic event occurred that had me turning back the pages to see if I'd missed something! But no, Koontz presents a very unassuming character and then shows you how wrong a first impression can be. And he doesn't stop there, the book has twists aplenty many of which I didn't see coming. Corner of His Eye is a mixed bag of genre: suspense, thriller, supernatural and drama that meshes well and keeps the reader fully engaged.Without providing spoilers, let me tell you that for the first 3/4 of this story I was completely intrigued with the characters, their development and the suspense and thrill as the plot progressed to the final solution. Although there are a few things you'll need to overlook, like the 3-year old prodigies, their dialogue, the stereotypical perfectly perfect people and the noir PI. There are some interesting concepts, which always wins my favor and allows me to give leeway on other things. You should also just stop reading after the bad guy meets his demise because the story suffered from the attempt to tie a neat bow on a package that didn't need it. Overall fast-paced thrill read.

Take Me WIth You

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

This is one of those feel good books along the Mitch Albom or Nicholas Sparks line, and if you're a fan of those, you will love this book! August Schroder loses his son in a car accident. In the process of coming to terms with his loss, he decides to take an RV trip to some National Parks and distribute his son's ashes. Along the way, August picks up 2 boys whose father is going to prison. Take Me With You tells about their relationship and August's healing process.

The sweet/sappy isn't my favorite reading, and this story was a bit preachy, but good enough. 

Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century

by Peter Graham

Several years ago (probably more like 20), I began reading a mystery series written by Anne Perry, which was a decent enough series for me to read several of the books. When I read this title, I thought Anne Perry must have written about some infamous murder and was rather taken aback to learn that Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century was actually a story about a horrific murder committed BY Anne Perry! When she was a teenager, Perry, whose given name is Juliet Hulme, together with her close friend Pauline Parker conspired together to brutally murder Pauline's mother. The act was premeditated and vicious and neither Hulme nor Parker at any time were remorseful or regretful about what they had done. The girls were very matter of fact in stating that Mrs. Parker wasn't a very happy person who was interfering with them being together so she needed to be eliminated. In New Zealand, minors committing criminal offenses served terms "at the pleasure of her majesty", which for Hulme and Parker amounted to barely over 5 years in prison. Upon their release, both girls' names were changed, and Anne Perry went on to become a very successful mystery writer.

This was not a very well-written book, there was a lot of unnecessary background information, a disjointed timeline, and much repetition. Plus Graham was very heavy-handed in providing excuses for the girls. However, I was intrigued by the murder and trial details due to the fact I was familiar with Perry's books. If you were interested, I'm sure you could find a better account or there's even a movie. 

Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States

by Dave Barry

Once again I am starting off the new year by signing up for a reading challenge. Last year I just did the Goodreads choose the number of books you'll read, and while that was fine, I kind of enjoy the type that give you some parameters for book selections. The one I've chosen this year (besides the Goodreads #) is called Full House challenge, hosted by Book Date. The thing about these type of challenges for me is I tend to read books I'd not choose otherwise in order to meet the specific criteria and check off the box. And that is how I came to read Dave Barry Slept Here.  The "laugh out loud moments" category. I don't typically read humor, not because I don't like a funny book, but it's just not what I gravitate toward. So I spent a lot of time agonizing over what to read that might really make me laugh out loud (Like Confessions of a Shopaholic, which if you've not read and need a laugh, read it). After all my research, I decided I'd read Confederacy of Dunces, but the library doesn't have it in electronic format and I'm sometimes too cheap to want to actually BUY a book, so I ended up with Dave Barry, who I knew to be funny because I'd read his column before. After finishing it, I discovered we actually have a hard copy of Dunces on our bookshelf, so may read that as well.

Barry provides a rather accurate historical timeline, but by mixing in some pop culture and confusing and combining events, his history of America is pretty hilarious. Did I actually "laugh out loud"? Yes, while I was in the outpatient waiting room where my husband was in for some spinal epidural shots I was almost in tears I was laughing so hard! I had to stop reading for a while because I was embarrassing myself (and some people are in there for serious stuff so laughter may be frowned upon). Another great thing about this book is that it is short and sweet. Barry knows just when to move on so as not to bore or tire you of his nonsense.

Reading List

Yes, I'm still reading, but failing to post, which seems to be the story of my blogging life! So, here is a list of the rest of the books I've read so far. I will spend the last weeks of this year reviewing some of my favorites since there is no way I can get to all of them. If there are any on the list that you would particularly like to hear about let me know.

The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson (I liked Hundred-Year-Old Man better)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Woods by Harlan Coben
The Four Ms Bradwells by Meg Waite Clayton (not her best)
The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood (too gross and disturbing to finish)
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
After Acts by Brian Litfin
Inside the O'Brien's by Lisa Genova (unlikable characters but interesting information on Huntington's Disease)
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (audiobook- previous review)
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Glass Sentence by SE Grove
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Martian by Andy Weir
A Royal Pain  by Rhys Bowen (lost all the fun of the first book)
A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell (great title, very dry retelling of facts)
The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki (seemed like I'd read this before- story of "Sisi" empress of Austria)
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (like Thursday Next series better)
Rose Madder by Stephen King (a reread)
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (oddly similar character in Rose Madder- but you know what I think of SK)
My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni

In January I accepted a challenge to read 50 books this year, I'm at 47 now so I may beat that number.