Vacation reads

I read 2 books as beach reads this year and started a 3rd. The first 2 I left behind at the hotel and hope other beach goers enjoyed them as much as I did. :)

I'm not particularly going to review either since vacation was several weeks ago but since they were decent reads, I do want to recommend them.

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

From Goodreads:
Jasper Fforde has done it again in this genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment. After two rollicking New York Times bestselling adventures through Western literature, resourceful BookWorld literary detective Thursday Next definitely needs some downtime. And what better place for a respite than in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books—like the one she has taken up residence in—are scrapped for salvage. To make matters worse, a murderer is stalking the personnel of Jurisfiction and it’s up to Thursday to save the day. A brilliant feat of literary showmanship filled with wit, fantasy, and effervescent originality, this Ffordian tour de force will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse. Thursday’s zany investigations continue with Something Rotten. Look for the five other bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and Jasper Fforde’s latest bestseller, The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com for a ffull window into the Ffordian world!

The Society by Michael Palmer

From Goodreads:
At the headquarters of Boston's Eastern Quality Health, the wealthy and powerful CEO is brutally murdered. She's not the first to die --- nor the last. A serial killer is on the loose and the victims have one thing in common: all are high-profile executives in the managed care industry.

Dr. Will Grant is outraged by a system that cares more about money than about patients --- and he intends to do something about it. But his determination has attracted a dangerous zealot who will stop at nothing to make Will his ally. On the case is rookie detective Patty Moriarity. To save her faltering career --- and countless lives --- she will have to risk trusting Will, knowing he may be the killer she's hunting

Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz

Sixth in my beloved but somewhat annoying series by Koontz.

I adored the first one, didn't care for the second, loved the 3rd, etc. from there on out. There were several pieces to the sixth book that I really enjoyed, a change from the formula.

Odd Thomas is a special fry cook, currently unemployed. He's stowing away in a house on the water with Annamaria, the ever-pregnant mysterious woman from the last book, and with Tim who is also from the last book but is such a bit player here, I forgot who he was.

Odd goes in to town for staples, jeans and socks, but because this is a Koontz book, he never gets his jeans...kind of.

Odd has a talent for seeing lingering spirits of the dead and being drawn towards things. In this case, he is drawn towards an 18-wheeler and, for his efforts, nearly gets shot in the crotch. Um.... it's really going to be a bumpy ride.

Alfred Hitchcock is his spirit companion and Boo the spirit dog is still around as well. Children are going missing and Odd is the only one who can save them, with the help of spry Mrs. Fischer.

The book speaks in riddles, so will my review. This is a good one, not great, and with such an ending that I have to believe the next Odd book is nigh.

Inferno by Dan Brown

I think I read this at the wrong time.

I had just finished A Discovery of Witches when I got this from the library. I have enjoyed all of Brown's work so I didn't stop to think that the exhaustive detail from ADOW would have worn me out so that I didn't enjoy Brown's exhaustive detail nearly as much. Overload.

Langdon wakes in a hospital with a head wound and amnesia AND someone trying to kill him. Oh and he's in Florence Italy, when the last he remembered he was in Boston. A pretty young doctor, Sienna Brooks, helps him through this very Dante infused mystery. As I said, I was not into the amount of detail, although I'm sure it was all interesting, but I persisted because I knew that Brown would turn this world on it's head.

And he did.

I refuse to give anything away but I was pretty satisfied with the weird twist and the ambiguous ending.

I need a much simpler book to rest my brain now.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This didn't turn out like I thought it was going to be.

I suppose I was expecting more.... plot and less romance between a vampire and witch. I choose not to read up on anything about this book before I tackled the 24+ hours of it from Audible.com. So with the positives, I really enjoyed the narrator, she was quite good.

I was ok going into this book because the (sub)plot of the bewitched manuscript and Diana Bishop being threatened for it. But enter Matthew Clairmont, vampire scientist/doctor. I was still alright with that for a bit. I was pretty much fine when the plot became the subplot and the romance got the spotlight (I do not read romance, nor do I want to).

I started cringing though because of Diana. She was a petulant child. I felt that most of what came out of her mouth (with some literal foot stomping) just sounded like a whiny brat. I cringe harder when Matthew kept calling her brave and a lioness. I wanted to slap the crap out of her.

This is the part that I have trouble with, the whiny adult falling in love with a "big strong man" who constantly picks her up and carries her. UGH.

I did like a lot of the other characters, however, and might read the rest of the trilogy for them. Miriam, for example, speaks like I do. Blunt, to the point, deal with it. Marcus, Matthew's son, could have a grand role to play in the next book as well as Sara and Em, Diana's aunt and her partner. Loved them, loved the ghosts in the Bishop house and Sophie and Nathaniel. So how did I end up hating Diana SO much?

Ah well...

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Hosseini's 3rd book and I'm an official fan. I guess I thought the first two could be flukes (no I didn't, they were wonderful).

I wasn't entirely sure where this one was going. We started out with a fable, then went into the journey of little Pari and her big brother, Abdullah. They are with their father, walking to Kabul from their little village to meet with their uncle Nabi. It's not like I would give anything away by saying more, but I would, because I want you to take the same journey and weave through the story like I did.

Hosseini gives us an amazing story that, with the one act that happens in Kabul, pulls in so many other people in it's wake. I was astounded at the book's end and wistful that I could write like this someday. We're taken from Kabul to the US to France to Greece and all the stories are connected over a span of many decades.

Just beautiful.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

I heard about this in a roundabout way. Books on the Nightstand (again!) did a podcast on what was on their nightstands to read. Another book by John Boyne was mentioned but this one was also referenced. The library had this one so there I had it.

I read this fairly quick as it's pretty small (200+ pages) and .... speechless. I never saw the movie and I went into this book cold, no looking up plot or reviews or anything.

It's set in Holocaust time and our young protagonist is Bruno. He's 8 and his dad is in the German military and high ranking. Bruno is horribly upset when they have to move because The Fury promoted his dad. It took me a second with the wording because Bruno IS just a child. They move to Out-with and, outside Bruno's new bedroom window, is a fence with a lot of people behind it.

While exploring, Bruno comes upon a little boy, about his age, wearing striped pajamas on the other side of the fence.

At first, it was a touching story, and then it just punched me in the heart. Kudos, Boyne.

Silken Prey by John Sandford

Funny story with this book. I've been trying to budget and pay off some debt so I grabbed this one from the library. It was a nice night out so I grabbed some wine, my book, and my dog and went outside. Long story short.....red wine spilled all over the book. It cost me $33 to replace at the library but the book is mine to keep, wine and all. (Apparently me going in and showing the book and offering to pay right then was unheard of.....everyone behind the desk kinda gaped at me).

Onwards....

This is one of the better Preys. Lucas Davenport seems to have a bit of the old magic back. He's called in by the Governor to quietly investigate a politician who has been accused of appreciating child pornography, but the Governor doesn't believe this is true. Lucas agrees and goes head first into dirty dirty politics. Yowza.....but politics is ugly.

Taryn Grant is Porter Smalls' opponent and losing but when Smalls is framed with the porn, she starts gaining points in the districts. She is quite the woman....and I don't mean that in a good way.

I'm thrilled that Kidd showed up in this one, as did that Fuckin' Flowers. I'm not disappointed at the ending because I can see this leading elsewhere (at least I hope so).