Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

This was my Big Damn Classic of 2018 and it was a very good pick! Thanks, voters!

This is a semi-autobiographical novel from Vonnegut (a native Hoosier) and it is rooted in the bombing of Dresden. I forget which novel introduced me to Dresden but, prior to that novel, I had not heard of the bombing. Why is this? This had more casualties than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So why is it lost in history? Dresden was one of the few cities that escaped damages from the war until the very end, when the entire city was firebombed, killing nearly every person there.

Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden at the time of the bombing, living in a slaughterhouse. This novel isn't a retelling, strictly, of his time there. Vonnegut tells us, in the beginning, how hard this was to write, how many stops and starts he went through, just to get this on paper. Then we head into Billy Pilgrim's world.

It's a strange world of joining the Army, trying to become an Optometrist, time travel, and being abducted by aliens. Billy's world is a confusing mess of a life that he is at peace with. He has the ability to become unstuck in time, and travel up and down his own life. He cannot change anything, but he learns to appreciate everything that happens. Once he starts speaking publicly on being abducted by aliens and being put in their zoo with a porn star....this is about when people start thinking he's crazy.

Billy doesn't seem like someone who ever should have been in the Army, let alone fighting in the war. He wants to give up many times, but another soldier, Weary, won't let him. They end up captured and eventually forced to Dresden as labor.

Vonnegut packs in a lot to this small book. Each word, each sentence has weight. I'm very glad I read this (finally!)

Feeding the Dragon by Sharon Washington

If you have a subscription to Audible, you know they now offer smaller, free books for subscribers. Feeding the Dragon was one of them and I will 100% admit I downloaded it solely because it was a little girl who lived in a library.

My dream!

Sharon Washington herself read the one-woman play and it was magnificent. The sound effects were a nice touch but Washington's voice and her impressions of her parents and everyone else were just.... She's a storyteller. A born storyteller.

At one hour and 17 minutes, I ended up getting through this in one sitting, with a side trip to the park to sip chai and just listen.

If you are a subscriber to Audible, go get this!

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

I finished the audiobook yesterday and have been thinking about it since. I was also trying to decide if this would be the shortest review ever or the longest. I decided to go for a happy medium.


WOW.

I just picture J.K. Rowling as either 1) meticulous with a whiteboard and many colored markers, plotting out the twists and turns and character developments of Cormoran and Robin or 2) Writing furiously in a haze of magic smoke and delivering a unicorn of a mystery.

The audiobook was over 22 hours long and, because it was an audiobook, I couldn't go back and pinpoint the areas I knew I needed to go back over. Once I got to the end and all was revealed, I wanted to run back and re-read. But really, I didn't need to go back. I just sat there with a mug of tea and let my mind trace back. The 22+ hours seemed like it zipped by and didn't seem like it had a plan. But once I looked back at the path Rowling led me on, it was damn well laid out. I was just rushing along, asking "And then what happened???" without seeing where I was going.

And that, my friends, is why I love this series so much.

I'm going to be somewhat vague because I want others to race along the path and be surprised as well. I would feel terrible if I gave anything away.

Parts of this book made me heartsick. The women in the abusive relationships, our dear Robin and Flick, were all too real. Emotional and manipulative abuse is still abuse. I wanted nothing more than for Robin to kick Matthew in the balls and walk out. I also wanted nothing more than for Cormoran to quit being in his head and reach out to Robin as a friend. His brain made excuses and Robin's brain made excuses and, OH MY GOD YOU TWO, talk to each other!

There was one phrase that, at first, made me indignant. We all see how capable Robin is, how quick and clever, how physically able she is to take care of herself. Besides Matthew's horrid comments about her, we already know Robin. So when Cormoran said that (paraphrasing) because Robin was a woman, she was the most vulnerable of the two of them. I was starting to get all righteous that Cormoran thought this.....

then I realized he's right. We are still in the age where, no matter the woman's capabilities, we are thought of as weaker and more vulnerable. And it's proven in the end. The villain of the book didn't go after Strike. The villain went after Robin. Dammit.

I'm very curious where we go from here. We've brought Charlotte back into the mix. Robin and Strike have shown they are willing to break the law and lean a bit towards the unethical side to get the information they need. Matthew surely can't be going into the night quietly because he's a full-of-pride-asshole who needs the last word.

Ready for the next one, Ms. Rowling!

The Big Damn Classic of 2019 is....

I have no idea! With only 24 votes, this could swing either way (although I think North and South is out of the game.)  Vote below for the Big Damn Classic that I will read in 2019!

Getting Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut queued up on my Kindle - my 2018 Big Damn Classic (hey, it's still technically 2018!)

So what will it be next year?

Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich

I'm surprised I got this book from the library when I did. I was 186th in line for the audiobook! Thankfully, the hardback line was much shorter. I enjoyed this one and whipped through it pretty quick, but it felt different to me and it took me a moment to realize why.

For one, Grandma Mazur is barely in here. When she appeared, she was funny, but I'm hoping her lack of antics in 25 isn't an indicator of things to come. Grandma is pretty damn funny.

The second, it didn't feel as chaotic as a regular Plum book. I realized it was because Stephanie was always...ALWAYS...with Ranger, Morelli, or one of Ranger's men. ALWAYS. The crack team of Plum and Lula didn't have much opportunity to get into their normal trouble. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the dudes and the sexual tension. But they stepped in and helped too much.

Vinnie has to take over a deli, that was used as collateral for a bond. Harry the Hammer, Vinnie's father-in-law, makes Stephanie the manager and Lula associate. The big problem? Neither has ever managed anything before. Gamely, they arrive to open the store only to hear that managers end up kidnapped, leaving only one shoe behind, by the dumpster. Rangeman services step in with round the clock bodyguarding until Hal, one squeamish at the sight of blood bodyguard, ends up kidnapped himself.

Trenton's finest (Morelli) and Ranger protect Stephanie while using her as bait. We have a lot of bizarre things in this book, and many literal LOL moments, but most of the heavy lifting is from the dudes surrounding Stephanie.

I hope Twenty-six finds a happy medium between twenty-four and twenty-five.

The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy

We've landed in the 30's and 40's, in Canada, in Chinatown. Not exactly a place I thought I would be! This was a timely book about immigration and it allowed us to hear how it was to be a Chinese immigrant in Canada from the perspective of 3 children. 

Gender and birth order play a huge role in Chinese culture. It's unfortunate because the first POV we experience is Jook-Liang, only sister. Being female and not being the oldest in the family puts her in a position of, well, I'd like to say invisibility but she's visible and constantly being told by her grandma that girls are worthless. No one wants girls. Jook-Liang is nothing if not persistent, even becoming best friends with an old Chinese man, Wong Bak. You notice that in this POV Chinese culture is very prevalent.

Our next voice is Jung-Sum, Second Brother. Still not a place of austerity but certainly better than being a girl. Jung is adopted and he's taken with boxing, getting lessons and learning how to shadow box. As you're reading, you notice he has a need to be "manly", with boxing, fighting, and how he dresses. As you walk through Jung's POV with him, you discover his secret.

Our last POV is the youngest brother Sek-Lung, a sickly little kid that was constantly kept out of school and was a favorite of the grandma. His POV is distinctly void of Chinese culture and he's very clearly a spoiled kid. Probably the least favorite of the sections because it didn't feel like it had a point (you'll notice the other two did). Sek-Lung takes in all the disinformation about the Japanese, including with Pearl Harbor that forced America into the war, and he joins in bullying Japanese children, even while admitting that he was mistaken for being Japanese and had to be protected. Well, perhaps that is the point? 

This was a good book with great perspective on, essentially, being a stranger in a strange land....illegally. 

Elevation by Stephen King

Short little novella that has some of the patented King weirdness along with the should-be-patented King humanity. If you follow King's Twitter, it's not a secret that he is very much against Trump and this novella shows his liberal side, but in a good way.

Scott Carey is a large man with a big front porch (I have never heard a beer belly called that before). But he's rapidly losing weight. Not just losing weight, he's losing gravity. Gravity is loosening it's hold on Scott, more every day. So while he looks like the big man he always has, he's very much not.

His new neighbors are lesbians who have opened a new restaurant in Castle Rock. Despite having fantastic food, customers are very few. Castle Rock doesn't cotton to lesbeans who are married.

How the little town quits being a dick to the lesbian couple, how Scott, Missy, Deidre and Doctor Bob end up together and how Scott loses his battle with gravity....ALL very well written.  Humans are great (except when they are not).

The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz

I know I started on book 2, because that was the only one available from the library. Normally, books in a series recap the book before so, even if it's not a stand-alone book, it can still be read like one.

Not here.

I was lost.

We just JUMPED right into Jane Hawk's adventures. Her terrifying, horrifying adventures. I learned enough to understand that people, rich people and the government, want to mind control everyone and shape how the direction the world moves. That's terrifying and just a smidge to on the nose lately. Jane's husband (apparently from the first book), killed himself but only because the nanobots in his brain told him to. The puppet masters didn't want him around.

Cora, a schoolteacher for special needs kids, is another one of the victims of the puppet masters. How in the world she could destroy the future is beyond me, but they decided she needed to go. She killed herself in a fiery explosion that took out many other innocent lives.

Jane's goal is to get to the puppet master himself and make him confess his crimes so she will be believed and not on the FBI's most wanted list. As a fugitive, former FBI, she does a great job stealthily going across the US in search of her answers. She's more prepared for anything than I would ever be!

Luther Tillman, the sheriff in the small town were Cora lived and died, believes something is very wrong. His own sleuthing leads him to Iron Furnace, Kentucky. Jane's already on her way there as well. They end up allies and continue on, saving children and running to safety.

In the end, this book didn't wrap up. It left a lot of questions for us and for Jane. Nothing ended like she had hoped.

For the most part, I enjoyed this, especially Jane. She is going to be a great new lead to get on board with. I did end up skimming quite a bit because the writing was very, very descriptive. I loved the Odd Thomas books but skimmed the descriptions there as well. The inside of a building really doesn't need 4 pages of descriptions.