Book Review: Vogel House

I'm not really sure that I had an certain expectations going into this book, but I do know that it wasn't what I expected.  Does that make any sense at all?  Although the book is labeled as an adult contemporary, the main characters of the story are teenagers; teenagers doing adult things.  I felt a little weird reading it, not being a teen myself.

Clarise comes from a wealthy family with a spoiled brother and drunk, exorbitant parents.  They live in a mansion called the Vogel House.  The opening of the book depicts Clarise watching her brother and his friend taking drugs and trying to seduce a female friend.  What?  Yeah.  I was unsure of what to think about all of it.

Then there's Keary, the boy who Clarise likes.  He just happens to be the son of her father's arch nemesis.  (Dun-dun-DAH!)  Among all the teenage hormones and bad decision making, things get serious and go seriously wrong.  It's up to this teenage girl to figure out a way to make things right.

Aside from feeling a bit like a creeper while reading the saucier passages in the book, I enjoyed it.  Forrester definitely takes the reader into another world, and it's wild.  It's a bit of modern-day Romeo and Juliet with some catch the bad guy thrown in.  I'm curious to read some of his other books. 



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Book Review: Marbles

This is the first graphic memoir I've ever read. Before I picked this book off the new arrival shelf at the library, I hadn't even known that this was a genre. Ellen Forney is an artist who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. Through comic strips and other illustrations, she shares her journey from diagnosis through years of medication and struggle. She wrestles with being caught between wanting to have a regulated mood and not wanting her creativity to be stifled. 

The first half dozen pages had be wondering what in the world I had picked up. But I quickly got used to the format and settled in. I read this book in one evening. Without a bedside lamp in my room, I used my phone to light the pages. I wonder if this makes me eligible for my night time book nerd merit badge?

Forney digs into the correlation between artistic creativity and mental illness. Had these now iconic creative minds had access to mood-stabilizing medications, would they have still left the same artistic masterpieces?  Surely many of them would have lived longer, had therapy and meds been available. 

If you know someone who struggles with any form of mania or depression, this is an excellent book to read. Psych majors would love it for sure. I'm glad that it caught my eye and that I spent an evening with Ellen. 

Book Review: The Hitwoman Series

I said that these books were on my "to-read" list, and I meant it.  Once I started in with the first book, I couldn't get the next one fast enough.  And now that it's over (until the next book comes out) I feel bummed.  I was lucky enough that they aren't expensive to buy an ecopy of; the most I paid for one was $3.99.

So how do I talk about all four books without giving too many things away?  Maggie was in a car accident with her sister, sister's husband and niece.  While Maggie came out relatively unharmed, her niece Katie went into a coma, and Katie's parents didn't make it.  A "good Samaritan" act gets her propositioned for a job as a hitwoman, hired to kill.  While she never in her life thought that she would kill anyone ever, the people on the list are bad people, and she has to find some way to pay her niece's hospital bills.

Aside from all of this craziness within her life, Maggie finds that since the accident she can understand and talk to animals.  Katie's pet lizard, Godzilla (or God, as he prefers to be called) gives Maggie the business when she tries to give him freeze-dried crickets instead of live ones.

So Maggie has an adopted talking lizard, a comatose niece, and a mobster for a boss.  And if that isn't enough, she has to continue working her day job at an insurance company as well.

I love these books so much.  I got through them like a Janet Evanovich or Charlaine Harris novel.  The third book was more of a novella, and I wish it had been longer.  So far, my favorite of these is the last one, The Hitwoman and the Family Jewels.  But if you haven't read the others, don't skip right to this one.  Read at least the first two books before.

Lynn leaves you hanging at the end of Family Jewels, and I wish that the next book was already out so that I could continue the story.  If you give these books a try, let me know what you think about them.  I'd love to hear! 

Book Review: Fat Girl

This past Thursday I was browsing the nonfiction/biography section at the library while the kids played on the computers and came across this book.  It wasn't too big of a book, and the title seemed like something that I could relate to.  So I checked it out.  When we got back home I started to read it while I was outside watching over Daven and the girls.

The first little bit starts out ok.  She talks about food in a way that made my mouth water.  Yes, I love food, too, Judith!  But then she backtracks her story to I believe before her parents were even born.  Honestly I'm not sure.  I had a hard time keeping up with whether she was talking about her grandmother or her mother's grandmother at the time.

And then it hit me.  This was the book that I changed my mind about wanting to read after my friend, Elizabeth reviewed it for her blog, Chubby Madness.  You can check out her review there.  But even after I realized that this was the book that I didn't want to read, it was too late.  I had to finish it.  Sure, I could have put it down then and turned it back in, but a part of me wondered if maybe I would like the book more than Elizabeth did.

I did not.

I might even dislike it more.  I'm not sure.

The further I got into the book, the more I was kept waiting for some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.  I waited for a glimpse of hope; some happiness hidden within the pages.  It didn't happen.  Judith's mother was abusive; her father absent.  She was fat-shamed from an early age.  She felt that her weight was the reason that her mother didn't love her.

Everything that happened to her is absolutely unacceptable.  But the book gave no conclusion.  There weren't any wishful thoughts or cries of victory from overcoming one's childhood.  The book left me sad and dissatisfied.  Is that wrong of me to think that way about someone's true story?  Maybe.  But I wish I had never read it. 

Milk Carton Bird Houses

We got crafty after lunch today.  I've had this project in mind for a while now, so I've been rinsing out and saving Daven's empty soy milk cartons to use.  I got my craft supplies together and we created the hanging beauties outside. There's even bird seed inside for the hungry birdies. 

Blog Tour: Night Chill

From the author of middle grades spine-chilling horror series The Templar Chronicles comes a supernatural thriller for his adult fans

"Gunhus delivers a taut supernatural thriller...all the chops of an action-packed horror tale." - Kirkus Reviews

Emotionally scarred from a car accident in which a little girl was killed, Jack Tremont moves his family from Southern California to Prescott City in the quiet mountains of Western Maryland. At first, the small town appears to be the perfect place to reconnect with his family and to cure his troubled conscience, but Jack soon discovers he has left one nightmare only to walk into another. When a stranger who has been struck by lightning dies in Jack's arms, a child's voice comes from the man's smoldering body to issue a warning:  

They're coming for your little girl, Jack. . . you better run. Take your family and run. 

The warning turns prophetic when a local cult targets Jack's five year-old daughter Sarah and Jack finds himself in a fight against dark, supernatural forces that he cannot begin to understand. With the help of a mysterious Native American, Jack uncovers more than just a conspiracy that extends into the small community, but an ancient mystery larger than anything he could have imagined. Suddenly, he's not only fighting for his family, but also to stop a devastating evil from escaping into the world. Above all, he must rush against the clock to save his little girl.

Learn more at JeffGunhus.com

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So what did I think?

If I had to describe the overall plot and feel of this novel in one word, it would be creepy.  Jeff Gunhus really does give you the heebie geebies while reading Night Chill.  If you are super squeamish, this book is not for you!

Honestly, I didn't see the cover of this book until after I had already read it.  Isn't it horrifying?  Yikes.  After reading the much tamer, aimed for middle school-aged kiddos monster hunter books a few months ago, this was a shock to my reading eyes!  ::insert wide-eyed, scared face here::

Our main character, Jack, is a husband and father of two girls who is trying to hold everything together and forget about tragic event in his past.  When he starts hearing that the devil is after his family, no one believes him.

What makes this book so creepy is the believability of the lore explained throughout.  Sure, it's supernatural, but Gunhus rationalizes everything in a way that makes sense as to why people would do the horrible, unspeakable things that they do. 

If you're a scardy cat like me, you might struggle with the battle between wanting to hide under the covers and reading on to see how it ends.  When I'm scared while reading a book, I somehow think that reading faster will make the scary go away.  But this book is so well written and suspenseful,  you can't put it down.

About the Author

Jeff Gunhus is the author of the Middle Grade/YA series The Templar Chronicles. The first book, Jack Templar Monster Hunter, was written in an effort to get his reluctant reader eleven-year old son excited about reading. It worked and a new series was born. The book is a Book Of The Year Finalist for Foreword Reviews and a Finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award. Book #2, Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy was released April 2013.  Night Chill is his first book for adults. As a father of five, he leads an active lifestyle in Maryland by trying to constantly keep up with his kids. In rare moments of quiet, he can be found in the back of the City Dock Cafe in Annapolis working on his next novel.

 Blog Tour Schedule

June 4 Tyrneathem http://www.tyrneathem.com Excerpt

June 5 The avid Reader  www.tarmyblogspot.blogspot.com Top Ten List

June 6 Rayborn Rambles Raybornrambles.blogspot.com Review

June 7 Girl Who Reads http://www.girl-who-reads.com Character interview

June 8 Cu's e-Book Giveaways http://cusauthorspotlights.blogspot.com/ Top Ten List

June 9 Drue's Random Chatter http://druesrandomchatter.blogspot.com/ Review/Book Promo

June 10 lubs Book Chatter www.lubsbookchatter.blogspot.com Review & Author Interview

June 11

June 12 The Ginger Nuts of Horror http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/index.html Excerpt

June 13 I'm Shelf-ish http://imshelfish.blogspot.com TOp Ten List

June 14

June 15 Share My Destiny http://sharemydestiny.blogspot.com Top Ten List

June 16 From the Bootheel Cotton Patch http://fromthebootheelcottonpatch.blogspot.com Excerpt

June 17 Off the Page http://suzannevanrooyen.com/blog Middle Grades vs Adult writing

June 18 The Geekdom Of Gore http://thegeekdomofgore.blogspot.com/ail.com Top Ten List

June 19 Books Direct http://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com.au/ Review & Interview

June 20 Ali's Bookshelf http://alisbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/ Top Ten List

Cabin Goddess http://cabingoddess.com Review & Excerpt

June 21 Wag the Fox http://waggingthefox.blogspot.com/ Top Ten List

June 22 Mom With A Kindle http://momwithakindle.blogspot.com Excerpt

Camp Summer - Louisville Zoo