Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Book 134 Life After Phantom by Samantha


Life After Phantom: Opera Erotica
Kindle Edition
866 books to go!

Since this is a phantom book the review is in my phantom blog, my phantom of the opera book reviews don't really follow the format I have with this blog.
 

Book 133 Acceptable Risk by Robin Cook


Acceptable Risk
Kindle Edition
867 books to go!

Summary: Kim Stewart and Dr. Edward Armstrong begin a relationship. While working to research facts about her great ancestor Elizabeth Stewart, Edward finds a mold inside of the basement which could have been responsible for Elizabeth's conviction as a witch during the Salem witch trials. Eventually Kim moves in with Edward to the cottage that her and her brother inherited. Edward asks Kim if he can build a lab for a new drug he's planning to market on the same property of the cottage. Kim and her brother okay the building and operation of Omni Labs on the property. Strange things start to happen after Edward and his team of researchers take an experimental dosage of the new drug.

Opinion: At first this was a slow read, but it was one of those slow reads that are worth it to me. Sometimes a book starts off slow but if you keep reading you get a sweet suspenseful pay off at the end. From the moment Edward decided to take the experimental drug with his researchers I knew crazy creepy things would start to happen. I'm also familiar with Robin Cook because I read one or two of his medical thrillers when I was a young girl.

Why I chose to read this: My reason for reading this book was a little random. I used to read hard copy versions of books while I was at work. Personally I don't see anything wrong with reading a book on my down time at work, especially if I'm not working on a current project. I also know reading helps because if a patron asks me what I'm reading or what I have read I can offer up a recommendation. The more widely read I am the better it is. Unfortunately the powers that be say that even though I'm working in a library it's a little bit unprofessional to read at the desk. So now if I have down time and am not busy with some sort of work project I read a book on the kindle cloud. Which is how I read this book. I checked it out from the library and read it on the kindle cloud. This means I now heavily read e-books and I have to save my physical hard copy book reading for my leisure time at home.

 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Book 132 Autumn by David Moody


Autumn
kindle edition
878 books to go!

Summary: A virus infects most of the world's population, virtually almost everyone dies in an instant. About 25 survivors hole up together in London, 3 of them end up separating and seeking refuge on an isolated farm. Soon the infected dead begin to rise again. At first they are harmless, then they begin to exhibit your classic zombie behavior. This book is first in a four part series.

Opinion: This book was downright creepy. It's not as interesting as Moody's hater trilogy, but it's still a cut above what's currently trending regarding zombies at the moment. It was a quick read for me, it did take me a few days here and there to get through but when I did pick it up the reading went very fast.

Why I chose to read this: I like Moody's hater trilogy. I'm still trying to get the third book through the library. If I can't get it, I might buy it in a few weeks through amazon. While I was reading the first two books in the hater trilogy I learned about this book. This book is interesting because Moody got his start and his author fame by giving this book away for free. Eventually it took off on the internet, now it's a film, and a book series.
 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Book 131 Forever by Judy Blume


Forever . . .
879 books to go!

Summary: Michael and Katherine are a couple together in their senior year of high school. They believe that their love is powerful and will last forever.

Opinion: Judy Blume is pretty legendary and I think for her time she was controversial but I can't be sure about that. To me the book was sort of dated and a little bit cheesy. I have another book checked out by her from the library I'll see if that one is more enjoyable. I did like another book I read by her called Summer Sisters. This one though I wasn't too fond of. I got really annoyed with Katherine's character at the end of the novel as well. I sort of understood her but still got annoyed with her.

Why I chose to read this: This was another read inspired by a patron request. I figured I should read a little more Judy Blume since I only read one of her books.

 

Book 130 The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls


The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Kindle Edition
880 books to go!

Summary: Jeanette Walls writes an autobiographical memoir of her childhood. She writes about her dysfunctional family, about her life on the move as a child doing the "skedaddle", and how she overcame obstacles to make something of herself despite the fact that the odds were against her.

Opinion: This book was terrific. It was a shocking eye opener. I try not to complain about my life, although often I find myself complaining about some particular aspect of it that I'm unhappy with. After reading about how Ms. Walls lived as a child though I really shouldn't complain. My parents did the best they could for the four of us, my dad inspired and encouraged me to go to school and now because of that I have a decent job and a pretty good life.

Why I chose to read this: I sort of read half of this book a few years ago. I picked it up on playaway (playaways are mini players some libraries offer for rent that have one book pre loaded onto them). I always wanted to finish the book and one day I just picked up a copy to check out after a patron asked for a copy of the book.


 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Book 129 The Prvileges by Jonathan Dee


The Privileges: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)
Kindle Edition
881 books to go!

Summary:
Cynthia and Adam get married and start a family. Adam keeps on working harder and harder eventually he is able to start his own fund and a charity foundation. The Morey family is swimming in money due to Adam's ethical and unethical work habits. The novel is about the life of privilege they lead and how it affects them.

Opinion:
This book was alright. Jonas Morey is the novel's most interesting character to me. April was more of a Paris Hilton type causing slight embarrassment to her family due to her club hopping and drug activities. The story was written very nicely but I didn't care for the content of the story all that much. I also seriously dislike really rich twits which this novel was sort of featuring.

Why I chose to read this:
I found out about this book when I used to read the NY times book review religiously and the book review made it sound like it was worth the read. It is one of the books magically obtained by Shawn that I placed on my kindle, so it was the next kindle read I chose. Right now I'm recovering with some phan phic that I thought might be bad but right now seems surprisingly good.

 

Monday, November 14, 2011

128 The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror


882 books to go!

Summary: This book is a true account of 28 days that the Lutz family endured after moving into their new home in Amityville, NY. Apparently the house was haunted by quite a few different entities and spirits. They moved in after the DeFoe family, most of the DeFoe family never left the house alive as they were shot and murdered by their son and brother Ronnie DeFoe.

Opinion: The book wasn't bad. It's good if you want to read accounts that the movie was based on. I wasn't too fond of the writing and the book didn't really scare me all that much. It was a factual to the point account of the Lutz family's 28 days of terror.

Why I chose to read this: This was one of three scary stories I picked up during the month of October for Halloween. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get around to reading other scary stories, but I tend to read scary stuff year round anyway.