I picked up Make Me by Lee Child from my stacks prior to heading to a doctor appointment because I was thisclose to finishing another book. I could either grab a new book to start or take two books to the appointment because I refuse to sit and wait without something to entertain me!
This is #20 in the Jack Reacher series, which I constantly read out of order. It's ok to do that with these books, really. Reacher starts out making a spur of the moment decision then gets all entangled in some seriously bizarre shit. I'm super glad I'm not Reacher. I'd hate to think, "This is an interesting town, I'll get off here" and then end up in....whatever the hell this was. Side note: Mother's Rest IS an interesting town but geez oh pete, I was not prepared for that kind of interesting.
Reacher wants to know the history behind the name Mother's Rest, a spit of a town in the middle of nowhere. He gets off the train and is immediately accosted by Michelle Chang, a hot (of course) former FBI agent, who is in Mother's Rest looking for her partner, Keever. Keever has went missing and she's hoping he just went home for a bit and was coming back. Keever called her for backup then just disappeared. We know exactly what happened to Keever from the first page, but Chang has no idea.
Reacher is apparently bored so he agrees to stay and help Change figure out the mystery of the town. There's a group of townspeople who are keeping tabs on Reacher and Chang, including the one-eyed motel manager. They are harassed and finally, literally, ran out of town. But not before Reacher kicks dudes in the balls and the head repeatedly, because that's really what he does best, right? His body count isn't as high in this book as the last I read, but he did kill one man twice.
They engage with a science reporter, Ashley Westwood, whom Keever wanted to contact, but was not able to (seeing as how he was dead). Westwood wants the book rights if there is a story so he comes along for the ride in LA back to Mother's Rest.
Once they get with Westwood's contact about the Deep Web, things get dark, very dark. We find out what is happening in Mother's Rest but it's not enough to explain what they have already encountered. Back to Mother's Rest we go. I was trying to come up with all sorts of scenarios they would run into and I was so incredibly wrong on all of them.
I'm going to assume I'm just not a dark enough person to imagine these things and that's why the twist was a real twist that surprised me. So....good job, Child! *shudder*
Link: Child really doesn't like Reacher and is happy to hand the series over to his brother to take on
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Bluest Eye
I've been following the DrunkKnitter on Instagram for a bit because she's local-ish and a great knit designer. When the protests started happening against police brutality and BLM became a top news story, she started a #MKALBookClub (you can search Instagram for the hashtag). We would be reading a book and she was giving out a free mystery pattern to knit at the same time.
The book was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The pattern is Pecola.
I had The Bluest Eye in my bookcase but I had not yet read it. Once I picked it up, printed the pattern and casted on....well, the knitting went by the wayside until I got the book finished. This is Morrison's debut novel and her writing from the start is just lyrical. I kept going back to re-read passages, initially because they were beautiful, then again because they were so impactful.
We're in 1941 and Pecola, a young black girl, yearns to have blue eyes. It's one of her greatest wishes. Pecola is constantly told that she is ugly. Her family is ugly and everyone just accepts that this is true. Pecola is sure that if she had blue eyes, she couldn't be ugly anymore. The novel is mostly narrated by Claudia, another young black girl, with whom Pecola has to stay with when Pecola's father sets their own house on fire.
Claudia firmly believes she is beautiful. She, and so many others, use Pecola's ugliness as a way to make themselves feel better. But I think Claudia is only person to acknowledge that in the novel. Pecola's father is an alcoholic, abusive man. Her mother shows more care and affection to the white children she cares for than her own kids. Her brother has ran away too many times to count, never taking Pecola with him. Eventually, Cholly, Pecola's father, rapes her. She ends up pregnant when she is still just a child herself.
Pecola eventually gets her blue eyes....in her mind. She descends into a mental breakdown and the final chapters put us in her head as she spirals downward.
The abuse Pecola endures, not just from her family, but from her community, is almost unbearable to read about. When Pecola wishes for blue eyes, it's to achieve the beauty of "whiteness" as if only white people can be beautiful. When I started unpacking that, I honestly didn't know what to do with it. I listened to interviews by Morrison about this novel and discovered it's the same today. Whiteness is held up as a standard a beauty, even for black people, and that makes zero sense to me. I know that beauty is supposed to be a virtue in our society. You must be attractive, you must be beautiful, to be somebody, anybody. That is now, and always was, an incredibly damaging virtue to strive for. But it's even more damaging to tell black folks that they must strive to look as white as possible to be considered beautiful.
The world is unyielding (Morrison's words) to black girls. In this novel, you feel like Pecola doesn't stand a chance, that everyone sees her drowning and no one steps in to help. Claudia and her sister seem to be the only ones who are rooting for Pecola and her baby. Everyone else takes a step back.
This was an eye opening novel. Morrison has been on my list of favorite authors since I read Beloved so I'm glad the Drunk Knitter started her book club to get us reading.
And I finally got back to the knitting and it's working up so beautifully!
The book was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The pattern is Pecola.
I had The Bluest Eye in my bookcase but I had not yet read it. Once I picked it up, printed the pattern and casted on....well, the knitting went by the wayside until I got the book finished. This is Morrison's debut novel and her writing from the start is just lyrical. I kept going back to re-read passages, initially because they were beautiful, then again because they were so impactful.
We're in 1941 and Pecola, a young black girl, yearns to have blue eyes. It's one of her greatest wishes. Pecola is constantly told that she is ugly. Her family is ugly and everyone just accepts that this is true. Pecola is sure that if she had blue eyes, she couldn't be ugly anymore. The novel is mostly narrated by Claudia, another young black girl, with whom Pecola has to stay with when Pecola's father sets their own house on fire.
Claudia firmly believes she is beautiful. She, and so many others, use Pecola's ugliness as a way to make themselves feel better. But I think Claudia is only person to acknowledge that in the novel. Pecola's father is an alcoholic, abusive man. Her mother shows more care and affection to the white children she cares for than her own kids. Her brother has ran away too many times to count, never taking Pecola with him. Eventually, Cholly, Pecola's father, rapes her. She ends up pregnant when she is still just a child herself.
Pecola eventually gets her blue eyes....in her mind. She descends into a mental breakdown and the final chapters put us in her head as she spirals downward.
The abuse Pecola endures, not just from her family, but from her community, is almost unbearable to read about. When Pecola wishes for blue eyes, it's to achieve the beauty of "whiteness" as if only white people can be beautiful. When I started unpacking that, I honestly didn't know what to do with it. I listened to interviews by Morrison about this novel and discovered it's the same today. Whiteness is held up as a standard a beauty, even for black people, and that makes zero sense to me. I know that beauty is supposed to be a virtue in our society. You must be attractive, you must be beautiful, to be somebody, anybody. That is now, and always was, an incredibly damaging virtue to strive for. But it's even more damaging to tell black folks that they must strive to look as white as possible to be considered beautiful.
The world is unyielding (Morrison's words) to black girls. In this novel, you feel like Pecola doesn't stand a chance, that everyone sees her drowning and no one steps in to help. Claudia and her sister seem to be the only ones who are rooting for Pecola and her baby. Everyone else takes a step back.
This was an eye opening novel. Morrison has been on my list of favorite authors since I read Beloved so I'm glad the Drunk Knitter started her book club to get us reading.
And I finally got back to the knitting and it's working up so beautifully!
I like Toni's answer. Why would she be asked this when I would bet money that white authors are not asked the same question?
Saturday, June 13, 2020
The Mountains Wild - ARC
I got this copy of The Mountains Wild by Sarah Stewart Taylor from NetGalley as an advance reader's copy. I had a bit of trouble getting into it, it felt like the upward ride on a rollercoaster, but then came the rushing climax and twists and I was hooked.
Set in Dublin, Homicide Detective Maggie D'arcy is back when clues of her missing cousin, Erin, turn up. Erin disappeared over 20 years, along with several other woman, and when some personal belongings show up of Erin's, Maggie heads back to Dublin. The detectives are reluctant to allow Maggie to help with the investigation but eventually concede when the parents of the newest missing girl ask for her help.
We get to go back and forth, with Maggie and Erin's upbringing, Erin's volatile history and her decision to up and move to Dublin from Long Island, and Maggie's first trip to Dublin when Erin first goes missing.
Once Maggie is in the case files and starts uncovering missing information is where this really picks up. Her mind is stellar, as she puts two and two together and realizes what really happened. I think the saddest piece is where Maggie began believing that Erin was responsible for the other missing girls. Erin's history was tragic, indeed, and she made it hard for people to get close to her.
This is an excellent mystery, well worth taking the time to read.
This book will be out June 23rd! Make sure you get a copy!
Set in Dublin, Homicide Detective Maggie D'arcy is back when clues of her missing cousin, Erin, turn up. Erin disappeared over 20 years, along with several other woman, and when some personal belongings show up of Erin's, Maggie heads back to Dublin. The detectives are reluctant to allow Maggie to help with the investigation but eventually concede when the parents of the newest missing girl ask for her help.
We get to go back and forth, with Maggie and Erin's upbringing, Erin's volatile history and her decision to up and move to Dublin from Long Island, and Maggie's first trip to Dublin when Erin first goes missing.
Once Maggie is in the case files and starts uncovering missing information is where this really picks up. Her mind is stellar, as she puts two and two together and realizes what really happened. I think the saddest piece is where Maggie began believing that Erin was responsible for the other missing girls. Erin's history was tragic, indeed, and she made it hard for people to get close to her.
This is an excellent mystery, well worth taking the time to read.
This book will be out June 23rd! Make sure you get a copy!
The Museum of Mysteries
This will be short and sweet :)
I got The Museum of Mysteries off of Chirp Audiobooks for cheap. It's co-written by Steve Berry and MJ Rose. I've ready Steve Berry, never heard of MJ Rose. So essentially, I got it for Steve.
It was a super short audio book, about 3 hours, and I kept waiting to hear Berry's POV somewhere. In short, not a fan of this one. Based on other reviews, it sounds like I'm not the only one thinking this was short on Steve.
Here's the GoodReads synopsis:
Cassiopeia Vitt takes center stage in this exciting novella from New York Times bestsellers M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.
In the French mountain village of Eze, Cassiopeia visits an old friend who owns and operates the fabled Museum of Mysteries, a secretive place of the odd and arcane. When a robbery occurs at the museum, Cassiopeia gives chase to the thief and is plunged into a firestorm.
Through a mix of modern day intrigue and ancient alchemy, Cassiopeia is propelled back and forth through time, the inexplicable journeys leading her into a hotly contested French presidential election. Both candidates harbor secrets they would prefer to keep quiet, but an ancient potion could make that impossible. With intrigue that begins in southern France and ends in a chase across the streets of Paris, this magical, fast-paced, hold-your-breath thriller is all you’ve come to expect from M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.
I got The Museum of Mysteries off of Chirp Audiobooks for cheap. It's co-written by Steve Berry and MJ Rose. I've ready Steve Berry, never heard of MJ Rose. So essentially, I got it for Steve.
It was a super short audio book, about 3 hours, and I kept waiting to hear Berry's POV somewhere. In short, not a fan of this one. Based on other reviews, it sounds like I'm not the only one thinking this was short on Steve.
Here's the GoodReads synopsis:
Cassiopeia Vitt takes center stage in this exciting novella from New York Times bestsellers M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.
In the French mountain village of Eze, Cassiopeia visits an old friend who owns and operates the fabled Museum of Mysteries, a secretive place of the odd and arcane. When a robbery occurs at the museum, Cassiopeia gives chase to the thief and is plunged into a firestorm.
Through a mix of modern day intrigue and ancient alchemy, Cassiopeia is propelled back and forth through time, the inexplicable journeys leading her into a hotly contested French presidential election. Both candidates harbor secrets they would prefer to keep quiet, but an ancient potion could make that impossible. With intrigue that begins in southern France and ends in a chase across the streets of Paris, this magical, fast-paced, hold-your-breath thriller is all you’ve come to expect from M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.
Brennan is the best.
I felt like I missed something when I read this. I scrolled back through the Temperance Brennan books and didn't seem to have missed anything. But we start off with Brennan's boss being murdered and Brennan having a brain aneurysm as well as being blackballed from her job by her boss' replacement. Did I miss where all this happened?
Either way, Brennan plunges ahead on a case of a faceless corpse that is found, without being in official capacity to do so. I worried about Brennan, she seemed a bit unhinged and paranoid in this book. But it turns out she had a right to be.
Something is very off about the faceless corpse, as well as the new head honcho's description of the case. Skinny Slidell, as well as others, don't have a lot of respect for the new coroner so they help Brennan out.
The key word in the title is Conspiracy. We went deep into conspiracy theories, the dark web, podcasts spewing garbage (much like what we have today) and Brennan went DEEP. The rabbit holes are far reaching and you'll enjoy them more discovering them on your own.
Either way, Brennan plunges ahead on a case of a faceless corpse that is found, without being in official capacity to do so. I worried about Brennan, she seemed a bit unhinged and paranoid in this book. But it turns out she had a right to be.
Something is very off about the faceless corpse, as well as the new head honcho's description of the case. Skinny Slidell, as well as others, don't have a lot of respect for the new coroner so they help Brennan out.
The key word in the title is Conspiracy. We went deep into conspiracy theories, the dark web, podcasts spewing garbage (much like what we have today) and Brennan went DEEP. The rabbit holes are far reaching and you'll enjoy them more discovering them on your own.
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