It's time for a few notes of interest (sez me):
1. Cara Black's 18th book in the Aimee Leduc series, Murder on the Left Bank, will be coming out on June 19.
2. The Woman in the Window (which I liked quite a bit), by A.J. Finn, is going to be a movie. I don't know any of the details yet.
3. Meg Waite Clayton will launch her latest book, Beautiful Exiles, on July 31 at Books, Inc. Palo Alto. This is the story of the real-life relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, in 1936.
4. #5 in the Maverick Billionaires, Wild in Love (which I loved), is live. I think you all know that this is definitely one of my very favorite romance series. And Jennifer Skully and Bella Andre are not done! I was very excited to learn that there will be more books after this one. That is good news indeed.
5. The Goldfinch (which I stopped reading on Page 19!) is being made into a movie. And Nicole Kidman will be the star.
6. We had 2 literary superstars pass away in the last week: Tom Wolfe at 88, and Philip Roth 85.
7. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, is going to be a movie. It will star Milo Ventimiglia (from This Is Us), Amanda Seyfried, and Kevin Costner (as the voice of Enzo). Patrick Dempsey will be the director. This is a book I never expected to read because it has a picture of a dog on the front cover. And as you all know by now, I'm not a big pet guy. But I humbly report that I liked this a whole lot. Thanks to Rich and Leslie, who "made" me read it.
8. Books, Inc. in the The Pruneyard is opening tomorrow, Saturday, May 26! That is great news. Congrats to Margie and the rest of the Books, Inc. team.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Some More Mini-Reviews
Well, once again I find myself behind on reviews. And in order to catch up, I've got a couple of quick takes on nationally popular books/authors.
First, there is John Hart's latest, The Hush. Those of you who have followed my blog for a while (I understand your reluctance to identify yourselves!) know that, as Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, I am a "big, huge" fan of his books. I think his last 3 were 4.0, 4.0, 3.75 (and I liked his 1st 2 too). So I was obviously very excited about reading The Hush. How was it? Beats the heck out of me. I just didn't get it. I don't know what John was thinking. The story didn't make a lot of sense to me. There was tons of description that put me off immediately and that showed up throughout the book. And then there was some metaphysical stuff that I just couldn't wrap my arms around. For me it didn't connect with the rest of the book. Or maybe I just didn't care. Regardless, I'm giving it a 2.25/4. And only because I like John personally (he always responds to FB messages) and because I recognize what a good writer he is. Otherwise, uh, uh.
The Iron House - 4.09
Redemption Road - 4.08
The Hush - 3.64
It's obviously not just me.
My other short review is of A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window. I liked this one much better - 3.25/4. It came very highly rated from friends that I trust. It was a little Girl on the Train for me in that it was very well-written, but I didn't emotionally connect with the characters. In fact, it was very similar to Gone Girl because I didn't really get engaged until about half-way through. However, that was all compensated for (at least to some degree) by the fact that it was suspenseful and had a real shocker toward the end. We all know I'm not that adept (a classic understatement) at figuring out what's going to happen in a book. But I think this one shocked everybody. So it was good.
First, there is John Hart's latest, The Hush. Those of you who have followed my blog for a while (I understand your reluctance to identify yourselves!) know that, as Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, I am a "big, huge" fan of his books. I think his last 3 were 4.0, 4.0, 3.75 (and I liked his 1st 2 too). So I was obviously very excited about reading The Hush. How was it? Beats the heck out of me. I just didn't get it. I don't know what John was thinking. The story didn't make a lot of sense to me. There was tons of description that put me off immediately and that showed up throughout the book. And then there was some metaphysical stuff that I just couldn't wrap my arms around. For me it didn't connect with the rest of the book. Or maybe I just didn't care. Regardless, I'm giving it a 2.25/4. And only because I like John personally (he always responds to FB messages) and because I recognize what a good writer he is. Otherwise, uh, uh.
P.S. John's ratings for his last 4 books on Goodreads out of a max 5:
The Last Child - 4.11The Iron House - 4.09
Redemption Road - 4.08
The Hush - 3.64
It's obviously not just me.
My other short review is of A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window. I liked this one much better - 3.25/4. It came very highly rated from friends that I trust. It was a little Girl on the Train for me in that it was very well-written, but I didn't emotionally connect with the characters. In fact, it was very similar to Gone Girl because I didn't really get engaged until about half-way through. However, that was all compensated for (at least to some degree) by the fact that it was suspenseful and had a real shocker toward the end. We all know I'm not that adept (a classic understatement) at figuring out what's going to happen in a book. But I think this one shocked everybody. So it was good.
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