Alli's CBR-III Review #44 - Fame

I was tricked into reading another short story collection because the title indicated that it was a novel in 9 episodes. However in this case I was pleased with the collection overall. A couple of the stories I skimmed through a bit but most were engaging and the writing was quite outstanding.

This collection was translated from German. I always wonder in these cases how difficult it must be to translate and not make the text too much of your own. Also how much of my enjoyment of the book came from Carol Brown Janeway's influence on the text.

Alli's CBR-III Review #43 - It Feels So Good When I Stop

Apparently Joe Pernice is some kind of musician, but I just happened upon his book in the highlighted section of my library and decided to check it out. There are a lot of musical references throughout the book so I should have clued in, but I didn't notice until about halfway through when I decided to read some of the author recommendations printed on the back of the book. I haven't heard any of Pernice's music that I know of, but after reading "It Feels So Good When I Stop", I am now of the opinion that he is also a respectable fiction writer.

Alli's CBR-III Review #42 - Stash

"Stash" by David Klein is a tale about a mother, Gwen Raine, who visits an old boyfriend to pick up a bag of weed and on the way home gets into a car accident and things just go downhill from there. The other driver is killed, but the accident is determined to be his fault. However, because the police find the drugs in her car, they threaten her with major charges and try to force her to turn in her source.

Alli's CBR-III Review #41 - What's Your Number

While cruising my local library I saw this book on the selected picks shelf. I remember reading a review of the movie and since I heard it was very awful, I was surprised that it was a book first. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised though, I guess there are lots of terrible books as well. This book wasn't supremely terrible, but it was predictable and a bit ridiculous. Sometimes the ridiculousness was fun, and overall it was a decent, quick read. It was a bit like baby food or mac and cheese.

Alli's CBR-III Review #40 - The Descendants

I'm on a roll again, I just finished reading "The Descendants" by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I had seen a trailer for the movie and decided to read the book as the premise seemed interesting. After just reading "Girlfriend in a Coma" it was slightly similar subject matter, but then again it is not really a book about someone in a coma, it is about a family struggling to find their own way.

I may be getting ahead of myself, for those who are not familiar, "The Descendants" is the story of the King family. We meet them as the mother, Joanie is in hospital after falling into a coma resulting from a boating accident. At first things seem optimistic, but eventually they do have to say goodbye and we follow the family through this journey, as they tell their friends and family and deal with other issues that have come to light as well.

Alli's CBR-III Review #39 - The Guy Not Taken

It has taken me forever to finish another book, things in my personal life were not the best so I wasn't really able to focus on reading. It seems again that I will be unable to meet my goal of 52 books in a year, but perhaps I can get closer than last year and maybe 2012 will be the year I get it done. Last year I read 41 books in the year so I can be sure to beat that as I only need two more after this. No matter what, I feel that I have acheived something great, as I hardly used to read at all, and now I have read almost 40 books in 11 months.