[Book Review] Women's Murder Club Books 1-4

In my defense, it was either this or talking about music and writing some more like I did on this week's vlog.  It's not pretty but feel free to go ahead and watch it if you want to.  So, a book review.  Oh, but not just one book, four of them!  It's a series and I gobble them up in a span of two to three days (James Patterson has a gift y'all), so why not talk about more than one?  Makes sense to me, makes sense to you, and makes sense to the rest of the world.  Or at least I hope it does by the end of you reading this post.

So the books are, in order, 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, 3rd Degree, and 4th of July.  If you notice, they all have numbers in the title and all listed by the "number in title" part of the 2015 Reading Challege.  He's up to book 13 in the series and I said that I was going to read all of them this year.  I'm praying hard that he doesn't come out with a new book in the series this year.  He could.  James Patterson is known for being the Speedy Gonzales of the writing world.  He has five active series and this year will see... Wikipedia says three books.  I say someone hasn't updated the article considering last year he came out with seven books.  For all I know he might be slowing down but I love the fact that he can do so much in writing all these different series.  It is something that I aspire to be in my writing.

Back to the books themselves, they are an insanely fast read.  I could read them faster, if I just sat and read, but I do have other things to do with my life.  It's set in San Francisco, which is a place that I would like to visit but won't cry tears over if I don't, and there's one main character, Lindsey Boxer, and the three major characters - Cindy Thomas, Claire Washburn, and Jill Bernhardt (later Yuki Castellano) that orbit around Lindsey.  This is shown in the first book, the introduction to the series, and then cemented into place in the second book.  It's more commonplace by the third and fourth book, continuing on through the rest of the series.  You get their personal issues, to feel more attached to the characters, rather than just the case that they're working on.  For example, in the first book, Lindsey has a life threatening medical issue that is the entire secondary plot line of the book.  In the second book, you get to see Cindy more in a relationship with someone who they thought was targeted by the killers they're looking for and so on.  I think it's one of the hooks that work well with the series and I do hope that it continues on.  I'll chime in later reviews if it doesn't.

So that's the nutshell of the books - there's a case and there's the personal lives of the club that revolve around the case.  It's interesting because I know, in a later book, that something happens where Lindsey's personal life and professional life collide in a not good way and she misses a promotion.  It'll be interesting to read due to, at this point, having her be nearly all about her job.  She's got a boyfriend who is in the FBI, but other than that, it's really the job.  I mean, she's got a dog, which was a nice touch instead of a cat, but her life is very one note at the beginning.  It works because these are mystery/thriller and not straight up literature or chick lit.  It's nice that there's a closeness and it blurs the line a small bit sometimes between mystery and chick lit but still stays mystery.  It's not as bloody as, say, his Alex Cross series (Along Came a Spider is the first book of that series, also a movie) but it has enough to make it a mystery series.

So, I highly recommend them, especially if you're looking for a quick read.  The chapters are small, the writing is tight and you want to know what happens next, and you'll enjoy yourself.  None of them are creepy and yes, you might find them get formulaic, but they're worth it.  My favorite type of brain candy as it's smart enough to keep me reading and yet candy enough to make me feel like I'm having a delicious literary treat.

Review: Neither Here or There

Title: Neither Here or There: Travels in Europe

Author: Bill Bryson
Genre(s): Travel
Image from: Goodreads

Rating: 2.5 / 5






When I found this book on my shelves, I was excited.  For one, I do love Bryson's writing as I'm currently reading At Home which is something else I'll review if I ever finish it.  I seem to be slow reading when it comes to non-fiction these days but, like the title says, that's neither here or there (groan here).  This is his fourth published book, third in travel, and I was keen to read it.  For one, I love the idea of Europe and really want to go back there one day.  I've only been to Paris, which is lovely, but there is so much more to Europe than France and Paris.  I've heard Germany is lovely, as is Rome, so I was really liking the idea of reading about places that I really dreamed about going to.

On principle, this is a lovely book about Mr Bryson's travels through the place.  If you know where he is, then you can see them in your mind.  If not, then you're a bit a fish out of water.  However, there were a lot of points where I felt like I was in the bar with him and drinking with him.  That was nice and cozy.  I liked that a lot and felt his pain when he was in Yugoslavia when he was spending so little to have so much.  The social interactions were what made the book sing and I just wished that there had been more of them.  I felt myself cheering at the end when he's at the edge of Europe and decides to go home instead of going onto Asia.

Why I cheered is a bit twofold.  While this book did help with the want to go to see more of Europe, it is also fell down in the same manner.  There were a lot of stereotypes throughout the book, which Mr Bryson relied on heavily throughout the entire book, and made reading less enjoyable.  I was done with the stereotypes by the time he got to Denmark and found myself wishing to be done wanting to speed read the rest by Austria.  Another part where Mr Bryson fell down was actually describing the places.  Sure, we could look them up via Google to see where he went, I didn't want to do that.  I wanted the places he visited to be shown instead of told.  The way that he writes is explaining where he goes but, save for when he visited the Vatican in Rome, I had no sense of space on where he was.  Yes, he talked about all these walks and what were on the walks, but there was nothing to bring me to where he had been.  There was nothing to draw me into the place where he was walking and that annoyed me more than anything.  It's the reason that I was very happy when the book came to a close.

In ending, the premise of the book is wonderful.  If you've been to the places where he has, then you'll probably enjoy the book more than I did.  That is not to say to not read it, but more of a reason why I will probably not be giving this book a re-read next year.  However, as in all interesting experiences and books in life, you should try it at least once.

Review: Never Let Me Go

Picture this.  You're at the library and you're thinking "man, I want a book".  However, you don't know what kind of book you want.  You're not sure if you're into a book that is in your wheel house, like fantasy or sci-fi, or if you want something like a chick lit or romance.  Then you find this book that seems so strange.  There's a picture of people running on a deck and, on the back, just reviews about how good the book is.  How it's his best since Remains of the Day and you have this hazy memory about how it's a movie about something historical and bits of romance.  So you're all "oh, okay, I'll try it.'

And then you get home and you're 50 pages into it when someone asks "so, what's it about?" and you realize you have no idea.  There's a mystery about this book with no summary on the back or inside the first few pages.  All you know is that you have to figure out what Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are learning.  How they're all connected.  What donors, carers, and this school is all about.  You think it might be about cancer patients and how it's about working through cancer.  However, you're proven wrong when you go to wikipedia and it says it's a dystopian science fiction story.  The appeal of the mystery is so strong that you don't want to read more of the article or the mystery will be broken.  So you just go back to the book to try to figure out what the hell is happening.

Here's a picture of the book so you know I'm not putting you on.  Also, after this, I get into spoilers for the book.  So, if you don't want to know any more until after you've read it (or seen the movie), I'd stop reading after you see the pictures.

Alright, everyone got that?  Starting the spoilers in 3...

2...

1...

Okay, spoilers.  The book is divided into three acts that go childhood, teenager/transition into adulthood, and adulthood.  It follows, for the most part, three characters: Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy.  They all go a school called Hailsham and the story is told from the memories of Kathy.  She's the main character in the end and the story is told in first person from her.  So we're getting her memories and, for the most part, she seems like a reliable narrator.  She's a carer, which does sound exactly like the title, and she's looking after donors.  Until you get more into the book, it seems like it's about people doing something nice for others which is what we think about when we see the name donor.  Or at least I do because you usually donate a kidney to someone who needs it.  Or you donate blood.  However, this seems to be a lot worse since people donate for what seems like a max of four times before they "complete".

We'll get to what complete means in a moment as I want to go back to the characters.  So, we start out seeing them as children in a school.  The teachers, for the most part, drop hints about what the characters are going to become.  I was kind of dense, as I didn't fully understand what they were really talking about until much later in the book.  There is one teacher, called Miss Lucy, who does try to spell it out for the kids.  However, due to this being child memory from Kathy (and Ruth a bit), it's not a good explanation.  So they have this nice quiet school life where they learn and do art where it gets taken away by Madame for her collection (again, explained later).  Tommy comes in as a child who doesn't / can't hold onto his temper.  Kathy, when she comes Tommy's carer, believes it's because of the fact that, on some level, he knew about what was coming.  So, there's kid problems and things with teachers, and you get the connection for the book title from a cassette tape called Songs After Dark by Judy Bridgewater (fictional artist).  We also have a scene where Kathy is dancing to the song while holding a pillow and Madame, the one in charge of Hailsham, watching her and crying.  When Kathy (along with Tommy) find Madame after Kathy becomes a carer, they have two different views of the scene.  Kathy thought Madame was crying because Madame couldn't have children.  Madame was really crying because she saw it as a young girl trying to hold onto an innocent world where there was little to no innocence in the world (paraphrasing here).  Now, before the end of the first part, Kathy does lose the tape and there's no finding it.  It's important for the next part, I swear.  So, that's childhood, from the memories of Kathy, Ruth, and a bit of Tommy.

The book goes into part two, where the characters (along with others), go to what is called the Cottages.  They meet two major characters there called Chrissy and Rodney, who are a tight knit couple.  The three mains - Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy - are together but also growing apart.  Tommy and Ruth became a couple in the last bit of being at Hailsham and it carried over to the Cottages.  Kathy, on the other hand, has a lot of one night stands and it was refreshing to see a female character do so without any sort of stigma attached.  Well, aside from Ruth, who was only doing it because she broke up with Tommy during that time and didn't want Kathy taking Tommy away.  During this time, the idea of "possibles" come to mind.  The "possibles" are the original version of the characters as you start to understand that they are actually clones.  It was probably given away before this time, but this is when I got hit over the head with it.  Chrissy and Rodney tell Ruth that they've found her "possible" working in a nice office building.  Funny thing is that Ruth had gone on and on about wanting to work in an office building.  So they go to Norfolk and search out the possible, and it seems likely, until Ruth goes off on a tantrum (seriously, that's the way it read / felt) about how they're not from those kind of people.  That they're from the trash of society and it just turns the entire visit sour.  So, while Chrissy, Rodney, and Ruth go off to meet a carer friend of the first two, Kathy and Tommy go off to find Kathy's tape.  They do find it, even thought Tommy wishes he could have found it first, and you get the first instance where Tommy has more feelings for Kathy than Ruth.  Which leads back to the idea of Ruth talking about Kathy's one night stands and her urges for sex being horrible because.. well, Ruth doesn't want to give up Tommy.  It's after the trip to Norfolk that Kathy decides to start her career as a carer.

Which leads into the third part of the book where we're a bit out of memories and more into what's happening in the present.  Ruth has done two donations and it seems to really take a toll on her but it seems normal to Kathy and Tommy.  Since it's never really said what the donations really are, it's kind of strange to think of someone dying from them.  I could see that if it was organs but, until that point, I really thought it was blood or marrow or something on a smaller scale.  However, it seems more like organ donation because of the toll shown on Ruth.  This is shown the best when they go out to see a boat that someone got caught in a marsh.  Nobody knows how, but it's the great attraction for miles around (don't ask, I don't get it either).  So you see Ruth having problems with breathing and Kathy being worried.  Ruth, at the end of the visit to the boat, tells Kathy she's sorry for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart.  Shortly after that, Ruth "completes".  

Quick note, because I said I'd get into this, but I'm not sure I like the word of "complete" being used for death.  For one, it doesn't make sense to me to talk about it this way unless you're making it nice.  For two... well, I just don't like it.  It feels uncomfortable and like you're skirting around the real issue.  That folds into the first issue I have with the word but I'm not the author and he went with it.  It's pretty good, unless you have issues, which I seem to.  Okay, tangent over.

So, after Ruth completes, Kathy goes to be Tommy's carer.  She's more than a carer, which makes me happy because it's a great "finally!" when it happens, but it comes with a price, of course.  That price goes into the last plot point of the novel, where they go to find Madame to try to get a pass for Tommy for his fourth donation.  See, the fourth donation usually meets he'll "complete", and, in a way, neither of them want to let go of what they have (woo, tying back into the title).  They go to meet Madame, thinking that she has this magical way of looking at the art from when they were children to show their souls are comparable to show they're really in love, which is the only way to get around the next donation.  Yeah, it would be a nice and magical ending, but this is dystopian so it won't go that way.  It turns out that the gallery was to show others that the clones have a soul and that they shouldn't just be used for spare parts.  After World War II, they found out how to clone and it turned into a way to cure cancer and other horrible diseases.  Who would really want to give that up, but Madame and the other teachers at the school were trying to show that it should be different.  It didn't go that way and, in the end, the school got shut down due to a scientist trying to make the clones into children that were better than the originals / possibles.  That was so not kosher and, due to this one scientist, the movement to show clones = humans too was shut down.  After that, everything does downhill with Tommy pushing Kathy away and Tommy having his fourth donation and then completing.  The novel ends with Kathy just wondering about what happens next and what will happen to her after she's done with being a carer in 8 months.

Now, this is a well written book.  If you don't look for certain clues, then you really don't know what's going to happen in the end.  Even after the ending, you don't know what's going to happen but you can guess.  I usually hate books like this (see the This is Where I Leave You review from November 2014) because I want definite endings.  However, I did like the fact that you didn't know what truly happened in the end.  I think the most common guess is that Kathy, like the others, turns from carer into donor.  I have a different guess.  I'm thinking that her possible doesn't get sick and she just spends out the rest of her days as at a center.  Or perhaps she does small donations but nothing that makes her complete so early.  I like the idea of a long life for her.  The movie, from what I'm reading on the Wikipedia page, goes in a different direction.  I doubt I'll see the movie, unless I happen to come across it somehow on cable, but I might go looking for it.

So, that's the book based on the cover.  Who knew that thinking that it was going to be this romance book turn into something completely different?  I think it might be something about like calling to like, due to the fact that one of my genres is sci-fi/fantasy and dystopian isn't all that bad either.  I might try this picking only on the cover thing again sometime and see if the same thing happens.  If I do, don't worry, I'll report back.  

NaNoWriMo and This Is Where I Leave You

You get a two for one post today, mostly because I'm awesome like that, and mostly because... reasons.  Reasons that are the second part of the title.  I really might have to start a campaign about that book and how I want those hours of my life back.  The movie isn't much better, but at least now I won't spend money on that.  Point being that I didn't spend money in the first place, since I borrowed the book from the library (yay libraries!), but still.  I want those hours of my life back and we'll talk about that in just a moment.

So, for the seventh year in a row, I have written 50,000 words in a month.  It is a sacred ritual, one that requires months of planning and then replanning and then hoping you've picked the right plot bunny.  The wrong ones, as I have discovered in years past, make for horrible experiences.  The right ones, as I have discovered since 2008 (jeez, ages ago), make everything bright and sunny and full of rainbows.  For, you see, this can only happen one month out of the year, where the stars align and everything is awesome.

If you can't tell, November is also when my sarcasm rises to new heights.  Just chuckle and scroll.  Just scroll if you don't like the jokes but I can't promise they'll get any better.

Anyways, it doesn't happen just one month out of the year.  It's just the one month where everything works out because I've planned for it that way.  And, you know what, the entire year could be like that.  If I didn't have to edit and finish drafts outside of the one month, but it can be done.  Yes, I've done it before, though not in one project, so yes, November is special.  November is the one month, out of the entire year, that the focus is just on one project.  And that's good, in the end, because it's what's needed.  I really doubt that Mystery of the Dark would have gotten a third draft if not for NaNoWriMo this year.  It's the kick in the butt near the end of the year that I needed.  So, I should be thanking it.  I do thank it, all things considered, and hope to continue to win for years to come.  However, there's an even bigger milestone.

This is the sixth year that I've done WriYe.  WriYe is NaNo on steroids.  You write for the entire year, or try to, one this one goal.  Mine went from 500,000 to 350,000 because that's the way life goes.  But you know what?  You still get the same amount of support no matter what you do.  You don't get people yelling at you and trying to poke holes in the fact that you can write so much in one day while they're struggling to get a 1,000 words in.  And, it is, in the end, something that I will always value more than NaNo.  For, while NaNo gives me the one perfect month where the stars are aligned, WriYe shows me that I can write all the other months too.

So, don't feel that you can't be a writer just because you don't have that one perfect month.  You can steal the time in other months.  You can carve it out of weekends and times where you're on public transportation or even when you're driving.  For the last one, I recommend a wireless speaker and some sort of software that will write for you.  Do not hand write and drive people.  It's up there with the silliness of texting and driving.

Now, for what I began my post with, I'll end with it.  Just don't read the book.  Go out and write better books.  Go out and have a definite ending.  It doesn't have to be all sunshine and rainbows, but it has to be better than there being no resolution at all.  It has to be better than making the choice that doesn't seem like making a choice in the first place.  So, go, be free and write.  I'm going to be left here by a book and stew over just how much I really hate it in the end.