Reviews are important to all businesses, but since becoming an author, I’ve discovered just how vital they are. Having read maybe thousands of books in my life, I’ll admit that I rarely posted reviews. Sorry about that all you hard-working writers! I now intend to change.
Since I began writing, I stopped reading as much as I used to. Sad, but there are only so many hours in the day and only so many plotlines I can carry around in my head. I also discovered that I was more critical of books than I used to be and read with an editing eye rather than strictly as a reader. Regardless, reading has saved my life in countless ways and I’m determined to read more, but not singularly from the well of familiar friends—my go-to authors—but from fresh faces–authors whom I’ve never read. The selection process is organic, incited by something I see that interests my mood, landing in my over-flowing email from marketing sources.
Let the reviews begin.
Five stars.
I purchased the hardback of this book when I heard that Meta was trying to block its publication. And I’m so glad I did. The book was a jaw-dropping, gripping read that held me in a trance.
It’s my understanding that the legal efforts on Meta’s part to have the book blocked have only made it more popular. After reading the book, I’m not surprised. Meta is run by short-sighted, narcissistic, and self-important people who often act like idiot toddlers. Mine. Mine. Gimme. Gimme. Cake. More. More.
Once I received the book, I was reluctant to dive in, thinking it would be a challenging read with technology and boring stuff, but I was wrong with that assessment. The book is superbly written, relatable, and humanistic, and made me proud of Sarah for her bravery in becoming a whistleblower. A New Zealand native, Sarah is a lawyer who worked as a diplomat for the United Nations before doggedly selling herself on the staff at Facebook for a job within the organization that she felt could better the world. After working in the upper stratosphere echelons of Facebook for around six years, she has the receipts to prove that the dream of what it could be, became a nightmare.
She lays the groundwork for her assertions against Facebook/Meta building her credibility with the reader as she starts from her youth and before the hire. Eventually becoming an intricate player within the Facebook organization she is a brilliantly smart person (and writer), and she struggles with the culture and personalities of the privileged and out-of-touch leadership who carelessly treat her not as a person, but as a tool. She is often in physical danger too! I was shocked at how often the top leadership – Mark, other top execs, and Sheryl Sandberg – could have cared less about Sarah’s pain, pressure, obstacles, and danger. Not to mention their ignoring Sarah’s wisdom and advice.
I’d heard of Sheryl Sandberg – she of the hot book – Lean In. As Oprah and CEOs and billionaires applauded Sheryl’s awesomeness and her book, I recall at the time feeling intrigued, but super skeptical. See me giving a side eye to the situation and rejecting being given life coaching by a billionaire. It turns out my instincts were right. It’s easier to lean in when you have a staff of nannies, maids, cooks, toadies, and private jets. But she expects everyone to be just as work-driven and productive as her. If you’ve seen the great show Succession – think of the personal assistants portrayed on that show. Their job is to just do – never question – no matter how stupid the task or how impossible the ask. (Do you remember the scene on funeral day when Kendall Roy asks his fast-walking-in-heels personal assistant why she has a meeting scheduled with him and she says in a nervous sing-song – oh, we can talk about it then. He stops walking and presses her for an answer on the spot and she softballs intimating that she is thinking about making a change – and he’s pissed and says like thanks a lot for bringing this up today, bitch, my father just died. But she didn’t – he did…. Whatever. You cannot win). Another example. Think Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada asking for the yet-unpublished Harry Potter books to be delivered to her children that the same day.
There is a story in Sarah’s book where while traveling in Mexico with the top execs, she gets a frantic call from her husband – there is a horrible situation going on at home in Manhattan with their nanny and the baby (for spoilers – I won’t tell you what was happening but it’s scary as hell). Sarah, trapped and traveling in a car relays or shares the story about the-in-real-time event, because . . . how could you not! Later, in her review, she is told that it was inappropriate for her to talk about her personal life and to basically keep her mouth shut and focus on the job. Lean in and keep your mothering and baby problems to yourself! And part of the problem with all this is that Sarah is not even an “assistant” – she is part of the team. But she is often treated like a body. Another time in a review they said she was ‘difficult to reach’ during the review period and she had to remind them that she was in an actual coma in the hospital. Still – they thought it pertinent and left the negative content as a strike against her.
I found the number of personal cruelties to Sarah abhorrent – but Sarah is not a whiner. No. She stayed because she believed in her work and the possible differences she (and presumably, hopefully? others) could make. But the world-changing greed on Facebook’s part to ignore moral and privacy issues, leverage people’s vulnerabilities, profit on the backs of victims, to control the flow of information, and have a pay-to-play mindset in working with an assortment of hate organizations, movements, and autocrats, and to take it further into doing whatever they want as long as they keep growing and gaining more users for their platforms changed everything. Meta is a world gobbler. A globe-stroking Golem who has Thanos power and it’s scarier than shit.
And Facebook had FACEBOOK employees embedded in the Trump campaign to assist them in maximizing the algorithms and giving them whatever tools and access that others didn’t receive. Millions of dollars were spent targeting and spreading the thousands of Trump messages . . . saying God knows what. (Eating cats and dogs?) Harness the press. Harness the information sent to the masses. Pay to ride.
I’m not sure how Sarah got away with publishing the book, but I applaud the publisher (and I’m assuming a team of lawyers) for going forward with the publication.
Read it. Learn from it. I have. But now what do I do? I use Facebook and Instagram– I need to for my business. Don’t I? Maybe Facebook will decide for me after some creepy search retaliates against me siding with Sarah and for this review. A second is all it takes for me to go bye bye for some infringement or for breaking some policy I’ll never get an answer for.
God help us all.
I was excited to read this book – a follow-up on the wildly popular book – The Firm. Which I loved. But The Firm was published in 1991, and I was a different person then. Everything was different 34 years ago, for all of us. Back then I didn’t have children, so I had oodles of time to read. I was also not a writer.
But now, I’m both. (Maybe not a real writer though, according to Grisham’s standards? See my Camino Island review). I’ve often said that writing has ruined reading for me. I can no longer read without caring about structure or plot or overlook storyline inconsistencies or character development or vagaries in point of view.
Reading The Exchange gave me multiple pauses. I didn’t recall Grisham’s sentence structure, length, and rhythm being so short. But it is. And that’s okay, in fact, it’s great if the story is there. But it took me some time to get into the style. My next issue was with the main character, Mitch McDeere. Tempted as I am to go back and re-read The Firm, I’m not going to spend my time doing so. Was Mitch super arrogant in The Firm? I suppose he was. I’m sure he had a healthy ego. But in The Exchange, I found his arrogance off-putting. His life is too picture-perfect. It felt like an Oscar-worthy set designer put him in a just-right metaphorical world.
There were rapid point-of-view changes. Head hopping? My editor does not let me get away with that. And mere mortals such as I, must adhere to the rules. I often quibble with my editors over rules. I mean – why not break them? I fall back on the premise – if the story works and the reader is captivated, who cares about the rules? So basically, Grisham has given me more fodder for that argument when it no doubt presents itself again.
Storyline inconsistencies in The Exchange pissed me off. That’s something you can’t get away with. And a major publishing house has staff. So does Grisham, I assume. What’s up, folks?
I’ll give you an example. You got main character – Mitch – in Libya – a super dangerous country, and it’s said that there will be a meeting with Turks at 4 pm at the hotel. With no explanation given, six pages later, the meeting is a half hour from the hotel in a warehouse. There is a problem with timing too. Mitch and his associate were sightseeing after a long lunch and were in a market when at 3 pm the loudspeakers called for afternoon prayers. They didn’t go back to the hotel but decided to stay and shop. So how did they get back to the hotel, discover the meeting was elsewhere, round up security, get into transportation, drive 30 minutes, and have their 4 pm meeting?
Another irksome moment. – A main character named Giovanna has a dying father (Luca) who lives in Rome. And he wants her by his side … “and she was serious about making the move. She loved London but was tired of the dreary weather.” Why the second sentence? Was that a factor? Her father was dying. He wanted her with him for his last months. Was it about the dying father or the weather? Logically then, if the weather was super nice in London, she might not go to him.
Then we come to a juncture (spoiler) where Abby McDeere – Mitch’s wife – had to go to Morocco to meet with a terrorist organization that had gruesomely chain-sawed the heads off many people and was currently holding a hostage. So, Mitch is at a restaurant in Rome (I think – he is always traveling – jet lag was rarely an issue though) and gets up from the table to talk to Abby (who is in NYC) about her going to meet with these guys. He’s “bothered” by it, and during the conversation, he takes the time to round back to the table to make sure they know to order him the fish stew. He then resumes his conversation with his wife.
If I were Abby, I would be pissed. Dude! Pay attention! We have a real problem here! I could be killed! But then, Abby also seems mostly bored and only put out with the entire situation. Mitch goes back to dinner and tries to enjoy “another beautiful Roman evening”, while Abby is packing to meet with the terrorists in Morocco.
As the character Luca goes in and out of the hospital – often – his dying seems to be getting closer. But later it is said that Luca was “resigning” from the law firm. Like in protest. Ummm, okay.
Back to Abby on her trip to Morocco to meet alone with the terrorists – I plucked out a few of the descriptive words she felt within a paragraph while she was en route: enjoyed, pleased, amusement, comfortable, favorite, delicious.
Wow!
If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was having a fine time. She did think of her kids though. Mostly about how they were having a good time and got to eat lobster every day. Then, she’s with the hostage and the terrorists in some back room in the middle of a market city within a maze, and she calls Mitch to tell him that she’s seen the hostage. In Mitch’s point of view – he’s “all smiles” as he lets the others who are waiting for news that it’s “all systems go.” Why is he smiling? Where is the sweat? The stress? The worry? Dude! She’s not safe! Not even close to safe!
Yes, the McDeere stress comes and goes at moments – but it was tepid. And there weren’t enough twists in the story.
So I got no emotional payoff from reading the book. And nothing that surprised me. Abby and Mitch’s life was an Architectural Digest-like existence in NYC with two perfect kids playing ball in the park. Since Abby worked for a famous culinary magazine and published cookbooks, they knew all the famous chefs by name. And the chefs would cook for the McDeere’s – like all the time – in the McDeere’s apartment – because the chefs needed places to experiment, and I guess that was a really good place to do it. But, sigh, sometimes the McDeere’s got tired of it.
I don’t read as much as I’d like anymore – because I just don’t have time. But after my last bad experience with Grisham – see my review for Camino Island – and now after this one, I’m done with him.
I’m just as bored as the characters.
Loved the Book. Credible Journalism at its finest.
The tagline on the cover says it all – How a spy in your pocket threatens the end of privacy, dignity, and democracy.
Gulp.
Aside from the sweat-inducing fear the story gives me, I’m immensely grateful and sleep better at night knowing there are talented, ethical, and fact-checking journalists such as the authors and their compatriots out there grinding through perilous days to uncover the truth. Laurent and Sandrine work for a commendable organization called Forbidden Stories. I strongly suggest you check out the site. It will give you a glimpse of the herculean dedication a collaboration of journalists endures to publish their important work without getting killed. (119 journalists were killed in Mexico in the last 20 years). I’m now following the authors and Forbidden Stories everywhere and consider them a source of real news that I can trust.
The book is about a cyber spying program called Pegasus that NSO—a cybersurveillance company in Israel—developed. Pegasus malware can infect phones allowing the end user (whoever bought it from NSO) full access to your contacts, texts, camera, calendars, geo-location, everything. It even allows them to listen in on your phone in real time and you wouldn’t know it. Yeah. NSO was supposed to sell its “defensive” weapon to countries and legitimate police-type organizations to help prevent terrorism and crime. But . . . money is king. And it’s now used offensively against – you name it. Journalists are a huge target. Dissenters of authoritarian governments. Human rights activists. People who need to be intimated. Basically, the good guys. Control the news, control information, silence the truth-tellers, and you’ve got yourself a bingo.
Sad confession, I’m not terribly worldly and found the massive amount of information in the book on other countries, leaders, and movements a bit tricky to follow. Don’t shame me, but I looked up Morocco and read up on M6 – fun nickname for King Mohammed VI. Stuff like that. So bonus, I learned a lot about the world in general while reading this wonderful book.
The trojan horse-type malware did make me go a bit crazy. We have willingly placed detectors of our every communication and movement on our person. And through appliances in our home. And with every click of the mouse, and through Tik Tok, etc. But I digress.
All it takes is one click on a link that you don’t recognize for the Pegasus malware to infect your phone. Pegasus goes fishing and tries to lure you in with text for something enticing or even from someone you know who you think might be sending you a message. A few days ago I received a text saying I’d purchased a $450 air conditioning unit and there was a link in the message for my ‘bank’. But hold up. It’s twenty below zero where I live. So whoever was behind that malware attempt might not have thought it through. It was a clever trick though since my impulse was to click the link and get to the bottom of the fraudulent charge. But I didn’t click. Because I was reading Pegasus. And while I don’t believe I’m the target of this particular and sophisticated malware since I’m basically nobody, there are lots of other dramas and pain brilliant criminal organizations can inflict.
Read the book. Learn a few things. Or in my case, a lot. And then support Forbidden Stories and brave journalists everywhere.
Thank you to Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and everyone else involved who literally risks their lives daily. I’m bowing down.
I got this book because it had like 63,000 reviews on Amazon and I wanted to see what was up. Where do I begin? It was a fast read and hit the mystery/thriller genre on the nose. Did it live up to its hype? It did.
Once again, I was frustrated with my Kindle reading experience as I really wanted to go back and review dates so I could better stay with the story, better understand the timing, and to double check stuff I was confused over. What day was the murder? Damn you, Kindle. I couldn’t go back and find it.
There were logistical storyline issues for me too. Like too much seemed to happen on the same day. Meetings, medical aid, cops, visiting with the victim after surgery, smoking in the afternoon, but it’s all still afternoon later. It was threatening a heavy snow a lot, but then when it finally did come, it wasn’t on the day described. But it was brought up like. . .yah – knew it was coming! Weather is an ever-moving event. Why was this a thing? Maybe this was just me.
Also, sometimes I felt like everyone in this story was over-the-top crabby or mentally ill or stabby or just in general—a bad person. Why? Sometimes when I watch British television remake of books, I feel the characters are all dark and depressing and really screwed up. Doesn’t matter what kind of neighborhood you live in, beware of everyone. This felt like that. Not-normaltown. You’ll get clubbed over the head for no good reason.
So that was the little stuff.
The big stuff/problem areas for me are twofold. The first issue is the ending. Unfortunately, it is NOT something I can discuss because of spoilers! Maybe I’ll find others to talk about. Argh.
The second HUGE issue was the use of an unreliable narrator. (Is this information a spoiler?) I’m not going to go back and re-read the whole thing now that I know where the story took us to check the author on his use of this writing technique. But I will tell you that at the very least, the narrator/main character, left out shit-tons of details about what was really going on. Lying by omission. The author brings you to the truth eventually, and only towards the end, but by that time, you’re hooked, wanting to find out what happens. So. . . did I feel used?
Maybe.
Then again, there were some wicked twists I did not see coming. Mr. Michaelides tricked me a bit, but I’ll get over it because all in all, the story seemed to work. I’ll have a difficult time trusting his work again, though.
I purchased this book because the playful cover was so pretty with beautiful turquoise water, the title too lured me with a promise of being whisked away to somewhere warm and lovely. The book had buckets of glowing reviews, and the first few words on the description were compliments of “delicious” and “richly riveting.” I should have read on. It was an impulse purchase.
Emma Straub is an excellent writer, and while I really hate throwing shade on her creative work, I need to give my real opinion. I didn’t enjoy the read. It was a downer. I didn’t want to go on vacation with unlikeable characters who were all depressed. And it wasn’t funny. About halfway through, I longed for something significant to happen, but it just never came.
As a metaphor for the entire experience, I give you a line from the book: “There was little noise except chewing and clinking of forks and knives.”
I was bored.
Spoiler alert for the rest and questions for those of you who have read it: Why was Jim fired from his job of 30 years for having an affair with an adult, consenting female? There was no sexual harassment on Jim’s part. The advances began with the woman, but we never learned her fate! Was she fired too? I get that office relationships are often not tolerated, but it seemed a harsh sentence for Jim. And poor Carmen was just dumped on by the entire family. None of them gave a crap about her. Franny was needy and in a deeply weird relationship with Charles. On the super persnickety side, there was one stupid thing that bugged me when Franny purchased anchovies at the store (the author listed the purchases) but then Franny came home and opened capers. She didn’t buy capers! They are not the same as anchovies.
The point of view and head-hopping between paragraphs was jarring at times, but for whatever reason, Emma Straub chose to do it. Like I said, she’s definitely a good writer, but for me, the story was not interesting.
Sorry.
I chose to read this book because I thought it would be a clever tongue-in-cheek hat tip to Downton Abbey during a Covid-like crisis. And it was.
I’m a huge fan of the Downton Abbey series and Ms. Cowan-Erskine brought me into that world for the first time in print with a fictitious family who was completely dysfunctional, arrogant, and absurd. Having a firm grasp on the subtle humor and characters from the show made it easy to step into this kind of dystopian alter-world and the book made me smile and laugh.
The plot was securely in place and the end brought twists and a very satisfying conclusion. If I had complaints, it was about the writing technique and the point of view and head hopping the author did. There were loads and loads of characters with the upstairs-downstairs thing and while I could kind of understand why Cowan-Erskine chose to do this, it was startling and difficult to get into. With no warning, she would change character point of view not only between paragraphs but sometimes within them. Often jarring, I eventually got in the rhythm and once I settled, the book felt like a nice cup of tea with a slice of cake.
I missed reading this book while I was growing up and again when my daughter read it for school. Curious, I proposed it as a selection for my book club, and here we are.
Reading it as an adult rather than as a youth or child no doubt made a difference in how I received it. As an adult, I thought the story easy to read, beautifully written, interesting, imaginative, wildly creative, and thought-provoking. If I’d been a young person, I think I might have added frightened to the list. The darkness and pain of time travel, the danger of going toward IT at Central Central might have given me nightmares. Like the hallway scene in the Wizard of Oz as the brave heroes shakingly march down the echoing chamber to meet the great and powerful Oz. IT was way worse, though. And creepy. But hey, heroes gotta be brave!
The book also screams for a young person to understand the benefits and beauty of being different. And to appreciate a world where individuality and freedom of choice are priceless.
There are lots of religious themes in the book, but ultimately, it is a book about love.
So give it up for all those timeless, wonderful messages. I’m glad I read it. Now I gotta watch the movie with Oprah.
It honestly escaped my notice that this was a book 2 in a series. I wish I had known that going in and read book 1 first – A Bad Day for Sunshine. And while A Good Day for Chardonnay could definitely be read as a stand-alone, there may have been helpful backstory in the first. I don’t know.
Argh, what did I think of this book? I hate throwing shade on such an overall creatively astounding work, but I will. First, though, I’ll tell you what I loved. The two central characters of Sunshine and her daughter Auri were wonderful! I fell in love with both of them. And Sunshine’s parents. And Quincy too. But mostly the mother-daughter relationship between Sunshine and Auri and then each of these characters as individuals.
I also loved Darynda Jones’s writing style and her incredible sense of humor. She’s ridiculously clever and made me literally laugh out loud several times. So I had those moments of smiling and thinking the book was great, but there were also lots of moments where I was confused and frustrated too. As much as adored the clever wit, comebacks, absurdity, and hilarious banter, there were times I wanted it to stop. When every character in the story is supremely quick-witted, (not to mention incredibly beautiful), it becomes too much. Levity, stabbing, levity, rape, levity, murder, levity, abduction, levity, danger, levity, kidnapping. Fresh out of surgery? Dying? Just killed someone? On the run for your life? You keep that sense of humor! Everyone is in a good mood. Cue the Indiana Jones theme music and run for the mine.
There may have been an over-abundance of plot lines to follow too. Sometimes the flips from one issue to the next made me shake my head to clear it. I forgot about a couple of them too, and when they would re-appear, I almost wouldn’t care and wanted to stick with the other ten irons in the fire. Also, this was supposed to be set in a small town, but there are times when it seemed big. You can get anywhere in about 3-4 minutes, but they had all kinds of businesses and services and schools. . . and shit tons of crime! The town should be in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
These next paragraphs are spoilers. . . Why the hell wasn’t it a problem/criminal matter that Mrs. Fairborn killed her husband and buried him in the backyard? It would be if I did that. Instead, they/cops just took sweet Mrs. Fairborn’s word that the guy was a serial killer and held her hands tearfully proud that she had dispatched him. But, hey? You think your husband killed 23 people? Did you ask him where the bodies are buried? Any thoughts? That seems like a lot! Was he a big man? What was his problem? Can we dig up your backyard? And during those decades (?)—where he killed 23 people—you didn’t suspect him and you never told anyone? That’s okay, we love you. We’ll let the teenaged Auri work on the case in the next book.
Hey, Levi. . . why do you insist on never seeking medical treatment? Sighing a bit at the machismo. The superhero thing was a lot. And Cruz, you just got stabbed several times in the gut and you’re fresh out of ICU, are there really so few lingering medical issues you can just walk out of the hospital and grab an Uber? Super smart move with no consequences I’m sure and hey, you left so you could do a noble thing, but where did all the hundreds of people holding candles come from? Who coordinated that when no one was 100% sure where you were? Nice timing for the small town to come out by the hundreds all at the same time in case you were going to go to xxx. Did Levi poke his head up over the hill? How was he involved? And how did Grandma and Grandpa sneak up on that hike?
Also, Sunshine never slept. And I find it super hard to believe that no one looked inside (Mrs. Fairborn, Auri) the necklace. Those old-fashioned cameo types almost always opened. It seems obvious. But also, how big was that piece of paper that was stuck inside with a will? It’s a necklace.
Oh! And maybe I read this wrong, but while Sunshine was taking a shower in the hospital, Levi comes into the bathroom and holds her while she finishes shampooing her hair. . . which would mean she was naked. No mention of this big heart-pounding sexy moment was made. Did I read that wrong? For all the chemistry and yearning between these two characters, this might have been a thing—he saw/held her naked. (Kindle reading issue here—I can’t go back and find it. If I were reading this in paperback I could. Argh.)
I could go on listing my issues, but I won’t. Because I’m mad at myself for even making the list. My inability to look the other way when something isn’t logical is part of my downfall. It prevents me sometimes from just shutting off my mind and enjoying the pleasure of the journey.
Because all in all, it was a nice read.
Familiar Friend – John Grisham – Camino Island
As an author myself, I was intrigued by the premise of a big Princeton library-based heist, somehow involving a young novelist and a bookstore owner. Bada-bing, Bada-boom. Let’s go.
But now that I’m done, I must say I had a few issues. I was a bit angry when I finished the book, and a little frustrated now that I can’t rant about the problems that irritated me at the end without doing spoilers. How do I say this in code? I threw a bunch of questions at the air, asking things like what about this, or what about that, why didn’t they do this and why that? Argh. You’ll need to read it for yourself.
I’d read almost all of Grisham’s books over the years but had taken a break. That said, I consider his story-telling abilities some of the best I’ve read. And A Painted House, (among others, I suppose, now that I think about it), is an all-time favorite read.
Overall, the story was well told, but I did get a bit bored with the main character, Mercer. Her sadness over her life and issues was somewhat annoying, too. She wasn’t a high energy kind of gal, didn’t really have any friends, wasn’t close with her family. But the plot was great, and I went along for the ride.
As a superfan of Grisham, I’ve got a shelf load of expensive hardbacks and the credit card receipts to prove it. I dove into Camino Island expecting to be fully entertained, but also stumbled somewhat early on, when the MC (main character) recaps her own writing, book tour, and publication failures with a. . . Yes, dammit, I made it to the Olympics but I-didn’t-win-the-gold stomping of the foot. MC/Mercer found an agent and publisher in her early 20’s, was published, (but sigh, only 8,000 hardback copies in the first printing, double that in paperback. . . it was deemed “respectable”), became a small phenom, was nominated for more than one major literary prize, and was a critical success. “The Times chose it as one of the ten best books of the year.” But those accolades were poo-poohed, trumped by the unattended book signings which left a mark on her abilities and ego. . . more on that later.
By some standards, those first efforts might be considered a valuable contribution, a writing, if not a publishing, success. But not by the MC. . . or was this Grisham’s view? It puzzled me by whose yardstick we were working from, but not overly concerned, I read on.
The tiny island of Camino was apparently a mecca for successful authors. The place was crawling with them, and they liked nothing better than to bitch about other authors, and wait for it. . . especially the smelly, and generally unworthy, self-published kind.
“They crank ‘em out, post ‘em online, call themselves writers.”
Disparagements go further, calling them pains in the ass, and, as a self-published author, I was again brought up short. Were these the MCs opinions, or Grishams?
Also, maybe I’ve run in the wrong circles, but I’ve never personally experienced authors being anything other than supportive with one another. In the book though, they trash talk about one another’s “really awful crap” behind their backs. Maybe, because the characters have all won the lottery and been discovered by agents and landed publication deals, they get to bitch about others who are “in the club” too.
“With the internet everybody is a now a published author…”
The self-published books go on a table at the back of the store referred to as the “slush pile”.
After a pattern for super-harsh trashing of self-published authors was established, I began to wonder if Mr. Grisham recalled when he was peddling his first book, A Time to Kill, reportedly rejected 28 times. Let’s harken back to how the world looked for him in 1988. Home computers were just becoming a thing, the long-tone dial up to AOL began in 1985, and Amazon didn’t exist until 1994. Had he the option of a self-publication experience back then, would he have taken it?
Lastly, I would mention to Mr. Grisham that self-published or not, writers are almost all, great lovers of books. They are your audience, too, and hold dear a special tale like no other.
I just had to say all this, in case it was Grisham, rather than the MC, who was looking down the nose forgetting he came from the same pen-in-hand, ass-in-chair position as his fellow writers who are only trying to find their own way, on their own path, toward creative fulfillment and publication.
Will I read Grisham again? Of course I will. But I’m not as happy with him as I was before. Now that I write and read, the world looks different, and I don’t like my self-publication choices being ridiculed by the king. Even if it is fictionalized.
Maybe Grisham’s next storyline can be about registered nurses bitching about LSNs being unworthy creatures. Or about the cliched snobbery of the Ivy-leaguers feeling superior to all other college goers. “They’re so cute for trying.”
Hmm, maybe I’m taking this too personally, but then, my life is rather personal to me. This review is obviously from my own personal perspective, but I’ll stop now.
Rant over. The end. I wish Grisham well.
Fresh Face – Guy Gavriel Kay – Under Heaven
A required read from my book club, I was initially concerned about the length of the book—592 pages in print—but I shouldn’t have worried. It wasn’t a burden to get through it, it was mostly a delight. I couldn’t wait to finish to find out how it would end, and then hand it off to my husband who I knew would enjoy it too.
Criteria I use to judge a book worthy of my husband’s time would be a great, well-written tale with depth of character and world building. Terrific plot arcs, too. I check-marked all those boxes and knew he would be as swept away as I was. It was languid reading and written like a long, often beautiful, sometimes violet, magical fable.
And the thing is, if I were to grumble over something so well-researched and built, it might reflect an unappreciation of the wonderful work. I think both irritation and wonderment can be true at the same time. I found inconsistencies that bothered me. Questions about events that seem overly far-fetched—and I’m not even talking about magic. I didn’t understand the significance of one blond character in a brothel. I kept waiting for her to reappear or for the author to make his reason for giving her a point of view known. It did not happen. Was she someone who would come into book 2 and the author is supposing we will remember? The book was sometimes tedious and redundant going over and over the philosophy of thinking. While originally tickled and charmed, I began to get annoyed and really just wanted the book to end. Stick to the plot! About three quarters in, the author begins to voice the drama from a more omniscient point of view with constant portends beginning with . . . “Long years after. . .”, or “He would remember that day. . . .” But then he goes back to the character’s point of view and the action and the story continues. Since I could see that the book had a ways to go, I was irritated with the denouement-type lingo. And broad statements like if Tai hadn’t met Roshan on the road stuff. I couldn’t make that math work. Also, 250 horses? Um, anyone got 250 arrows handy during war? Horses are not bullet-proof, right? I could go on. I made notes. Often, those notes had exclamation points. Some of the loose ends were managed in the epilogue, some not.
Another—presumably strictly personal—bad part came when I began humming the theme from Mulan in my head about halfway through the read. “Let’s get down to business. . . “, the song was relentless like an earworm I couldn’t shake.I also flashed on my time with Memoirs of a Geisha and Shōgun with the samurais, and oddly, the little kids dressed as ninjas that Andy controlled in Parks and Recreation while in the character Johnny Karate.
Those weird bits aside, I’d never read anything by Guy Gavriel Kay and was interested that there was a Book 2 in this saga. River of Stars will probably be read. After all, nothing is better than a good story that doesn’t end.
Familiar Friend
Full disclosure, I’ve been a superfan of Lee Child for as long as I can remember and have read every single Reacher book he has written. And, I will continue to purchase and read about that character until Mr. Child stops writing about him. These books are good versus evil, and I don’t believe I spoil anything when I say good always wins. It’s the reason I go back to this somewhat formulaic and enjoyable experience. I adore Jack Reacher. Except for the casting of Tom Cruise. Whyyyyy, Hollywood. Reacher is 6’5” and 250, and. . . never mind.
I’d taken a break from reading because of my hectic schedule and because I was fully immersed, writing my own novels. Other writers and I often joke that writing and editing can ruin your reading enjoyment. You look at books through a different lens and are constantly critiquing the words, style, plot, character development, etc. That said, reading has been one of the most enjoyable and life-saving pastimes in my life, and I am determined to recapture that part of my joy. Picking up a Reacher book, I thought, would surely bring the love back.
But. . . the plot problems with this one rankled me. Going in, I knew there would be leaps of faith required because Jack Reacher is an almost magical kind of guy with superhuman-like skills, and circumstances and fate always fall in line for him as he battles evil.
As a writer though, my eyes were popping wide, re-reading sections, not understanding why Lee Child gets away with so many plot issues. Like I said, it had been quite a while since I picked up a Reacher book, but did the other Reacher books have so many of them?
Potential spoilers here. . . where the hell are all the street cameras? The police will look at all kinds of videos later, and maybe Reacher won’t be found (because he is always in the wind at the end), but the other conveniently-placed, unquestioning, and capable superheroes who live in the town who Reacher happened to meet, live there. Consequences? Hey, you need a character who can speak five languages? No problem – he’s down the street and can come right over. He’ll put his life on the line too and won’t ask many annoying questions.
What about the noise from the gunfire? Sometimes this is addressed, sometimes conveniently not. What about neighbors? Sometimes they look out their windows fast when the plot calls for it, sometimes they’re non-existent like when a couple of characters need to drag dead bodies out to a car parked on the street in the middle of the day and put them in the trunk. Where are all the pedestrians in this busy town with high-rise buildings while the bodies are flying through the air? It’s like the wild west, and the action scenes take place in broad daylight while humans are either asleep or in the saloon. (Reacher also never changed clothes in this one – but that’s a trivial bit.)
The most rankling, upsetting part was at the very end. There were two characters – two bad guys – and while one is beautifully, wonderfully, fulfillingly (don’t care this is not a word) dealt with, the other character completely drops out. He’s just gone. No mention of him standing in the room, no mention of what happens to him. It’s a loose end, I screamed at the page. No! Did I get it right? I went back and searched three times. Yup. Lee Child just dropped him like he never existed.
All I’m saying is that other authors wouldn’t get away with what Lee Child can. It’s a paradox. The writer has built a fan base that is willing to look the other way. And Mr. Child has earned it. But damn, the end was really upsetting. Lee Child is a superb writer; it didn’t need to happen.
Fresh Face
I just finished binge-watching. . . I mean binge-reading this book. But the binge-watch thing was kind of how I felt. I just couldn’t stop. Honestly though, I was getting a bit jumpy with the pace through the first half as I suffered through all the toying Ms. Chance was doing to me. She cast her line s-l-o-w-l-y and patiently, giving glimpses of things to come, each scene ending with tidbits of “If only I’d known. . .” stuff. It was maddening, in a kind of a good way, but I may have eaten too many Tootsie Rolls while the tension built. Damn you, Megan!
And then, quite suddenly. . . Boom. We were there. Megan delivered. Yup. The hook for the book, “. . . a young woman’s rise and revenge set against the backdrop of the devasting 1906 San Francisco earthquake,” was the line that sucked me in to read it. And I’m very glad I took the bait and did.
A Splendid Ruin is wonderfully written, deeply drawn, and will whisk you into another world of old San Francisco glamour, but also one of wretched pain and horrible devastation.
And revenge. Let’s not forget that. It was handily served, and oh my, Ms. Chance, you did it beautifully.
Familiar Friend
I’ve read all of the books in the All Souls Trilogy. It’s a wonderful series, and before diving into this new book, I’m glad that I’d read them.
In my opinion, Time’s Convert is not a standalone. It had been a while since I’d read the other enjoyable books in the series. During those journeys, I recall feeling almost overwhelmed with the details. . . sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. Entire paragraphs deserved their own place on the history shelves, the prose was wonderful, the characters well-drawn, the plots tight. Sometimes I felt the books extremely intellectual, but I had bravely plowed forward reading hoping that some of the knowledge might stick in my wee brain.
My highly anticipated journey with Time’s Convert ended with mixed feelings. The good news first. This book earns five stars for its intense research. I’m positive Ms. Harkness did her homework and worked her ass off getting the details of the timing, settings, events, and real-life historical characters correct. I felt in safe hands and not misguided into a complete fantasy world. Vampire, witches, and daemons aside, of course. Characters like Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, and Lafayette, for example, all have dialogue, but fictitious though that may be, I felt good that the author wasn’t leading me too far astray and plucking stuff out of the air solely for entertainment. (Unlike The Crown on Netflix which I really truly thought was not wholly fiction. Is it? Angry here and digressing).
To the tougher part of my review, even though I’m American, the sections on the Revolutionary War did not interest me. During these scenes, primarily the middle section of the book, the plot felt tossed aside and the read lagged. There were so many characters, names, towns, homes, events dropped, I needed a chart. Some of those characters had their own arcs and I found I just did not care.
It was during this middle section where I found myself wondering what the book was even about. Where was Ms. Harkness going? It felt like a bunch of separate stories that bumped into one another for no purpose. Eventually I realized that the book was about the tale of Phoebe and Marcus and their vampire becomings. Phoebe’s transition was in real time, and Marcus, because he is an old vampire, is told in flashback. Interspersed between Phoebe’s grand awakening and difficulties, and Marcus’s really long backstory (how many towns did we follow him through during this book? How many years? Too many to count), there were the De Clermonts – the main family of vampires as well as the main witch character – Diana. But those wonderful characters were way secondary. They had plots and problems too, but they were side stories and led nowhere. And the thing was, I love those characters. Every single time Ysabeau enters a room I get excited. Diana’s magic is beyond cool. Baldwin is way interesting. I want to sail with Gallowglass, or at least drink with him. Had I not read the other books, I would have been totally lost on who all these people were and their relevance. I imagine Ms. Harkness had to decide about whom to write for, and she chose.
I have tremendous respect for this author and what she’s accomplished and will most likely read the next installment. Or anything else she writes, for that matter.
Fresh Face
I’ve never read a novel by Joel Canfield, nor any of his Max Bowman series, but was intrigued by the synopsis. A CIA spy drugged and locked away in a weird community only to escape and find Trump as president and his previous, notorious life in shambles.
When I opened the book and began to read, Mr. Canfield had me at the dedication. Among other shout-outs, he thanks his friend Bruce in spite of the fact that Bruce refuses to leave an Amazon review for Red Earth because Joel made him leave a ball game early. Love it!
White Rain was a fast read. Gripping. Entertaining. Easy-to-read. Surprising. Carl Hiaasen-like complex and oddball characters abound. The plot is tight. There are twists. What more could you ask for? Oh, I know, it made me laugh out loud. I love it when I’m so engrossed in a book, the writer’s wit so clever, that he elicits such a hearty response. And I was smiling a lot too. Lots of smiles, not just barking laughter.
Thank you for the clever romp! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
FAMILIAR FRIEND
I’m a long-time fan and reader of Koontz books, but try to be selective about which ones I’ll read due to his ability to scare the crap out of me. I can count on a Koontz book to have heros I’ll love and villains I’ll hate, and there is usually supernatural or magical elements too which mean I can lose myself freely, taking a comfortable leap over logic and what I know is true.
Dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers, are often heros in a Koontz book too, and as a lover of this breed, I easily give my heart to any of his books featuring one of these golden beasts. And so, I chose Devoted.
Knowing I’d come across evil in his antagonist, I was still unprepared for the terror I felt during the read. Anxious and invested, however, I took breaks so I could make it through to the last to see how it would end, hoping for a good outcome. No spoilers here, but I will say there was one particular scene where evil meets the good guy that will haunt me. I’m dreaming about it. I want it out of my head. But… will I go back for more? Probably.
Koontz is a wonderful writer, no one is doubting that. He can suck you in and bring you on a ride, and whether you want to get off or not, you may not have a choice. That said, I sometimes found myself skimming some of the deeper passages, some redundancy where I felt the point had already been beautifully expressed and I didn’t need more of the same. I find myself nervous from the hubris of criticizing such a gifted author, but I’m just spitting out my truth. I’m giving it four out of five stars because of this.
FRESH FACE
I saw this fun jewel pop-up on sale at BookDoggy and after just having finished my latest Dean Koontz book, was definitely in the mood for something light and fun. I’ve read many cozies, but, I’d never read one with the paranormal element. I thought it was time to go for that ride.
Lynn Morrison writes well, the story moves along, the characters developed. The setting in Oxford was delightful to read and felt well-researched. Learning about the colleges was enjoyable. One of the primary characters – H – had a super fun accent. Every time this cat/wyvern spoke I smiled a bit, breaking down the dialect. I could hear it and felt amused.
I blew through the book during one rainy day – the perfect companion for my mood. I’d chosen this book from the thousands thrown my way because I related to a blog Lynn wrote about the writing. From Lynn:
“Writing this book saved my sanity. That is no exaggeration. I sat at home, day after day, writing my little heart out. I got an editor. I took my editorial beatings. I deleted, rewrote and rewrote again. I worked my butt off, and somewhere in those hours I rediscovered my creativity and value.”
As an author, I appreciated those words. Good book. The way it ended was bit surprising. I could recommend for all ages.