Book reviews

I've read several books since I last updated my book selections on the right. Here's a few to chew on if you are looking for your next read:

Editor's note: You cannot click to look inside on the book cover as it indicates. This book cover photo is from Amazon, where you actually can do that, but I'm too  lazy to find another book cover photo elsewhere that doesn't say this on it.

This poor boy has led such a disfunctional life that you sort of feel guilty laughing at his considerable misfortunes in this memoir, but if you can put that guilt aside, it's a funny read. Boy has he had some adventures! Makes you feel like your life is a bit boring in comparison.

This book is narrated by an autistic teenage boy, who, as is typical with autism, takes everything for face value, unable to infer meanings or emotions from others. It was a "murder mystery" of sorts, and I found it an enjoyable, easy read. This was a bookclub selection of ours, and it was really interesting finding out which members identified more with the boy's parents, or the boy himself.

Review from Amazon:
Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Dave Barry does not write his books to impress with tricky plotlines or zigzagging mysteries. He writes the plot to give his books a basic outline to insert all of his fantastic humor and insight into daily life, which he does in this first novel. I chose a book based solely on my love of the author, and now that I have delved into his books, I know I will keep going down the list of his other books anytime I need something funny and easy to read.

Review from Publisher's Weekly:

Gudenkauf's scintillating second suspense novel (after The Weight of Silence) opens with the release of 21-year-old Allison Glenn from prison, where she has served five years for an unspecified but particularly horrible crime. Allison is reluctant to enter a halfway house in her hometown of Linden Falls, Iowa, where "even a heroin-addicted prostitute arrested for armed robbery and murder would get more compassion than I ever will." Allison, her family's former golden girl, secures a job at a local bookstore, but her efforts to resume some sort of normal life are undermined by her well-to-do parents' indifference, her sister's hatred, and the stigma of her conviction. Meanwhile, one little boy holds the key to the tragedy that led to Allison's imprisonment. The author slowly and expertly reveals the truth in a tale so chillingly real, it could have come from the latest headlines.

A good book but not as thought provoking of a read as I am usually looking for. Maybe a bit more Jodi Piccault-ish. Would be a good beach read though.

Finally, I am currently reading two books, one of choice, and one as the bookclub choice (which FYI is tomorrow night, the book is 500 pages long, and I have only started Sunday night... something's not computing):

 From the cover:

Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multi-million dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.

While I love the premise of this one, I am feeling so far she's getting a bit bogged down in the science details. Maybe once I've finished I will better understand why.

And last but not least, our book club selection:

There you have it folks.

Happy reading!