Dark Chocolate by Love Barkhurst

Love Barkhurst is a friend of my sister's, and had this not been a free download, I would have borrowed her copy. For what it is, it's an okay book. The love story itself is a little trite: the typical "lust at first sight" but it is refreshing to see a biracial couple in a romance novel. I couldn't relate to the characters though; Lila is a privileged white woman who comes from money, living in an affluent area of Connecticut with her own catering business. Jay is a streetwise rap star. I just couldn't like them or really care much about them. Some scenes seemed rushed and under-researched, others seemed way over the top (Lila is the victim of a violent crime twice in a few months. Why are we commodifying violent crime against women again? Oh yes, so Jay can be the hero. Right.).

The thing that really detracted from my reading experience, however, were the glaring grammatical errors. Inappropriate apostrophes, lack or overuse of commas, even spelling errors. I know this is self-published and by the very nature of self publishing, you have to do the work yourself, but couldn't someone have given this a few go-overs before sent to the printer? Love, I don't know you, but send a manuscript to my sister and I will happily edit for you, free of charge. This was a first novel. With proper editing, character development (the characters were shallow and unrealistic), and revision, she could have the potential for a successful second book.

Overall, it was an easy read to get me through a slump. If you want something you don't have to think too hard about, this is a good book for that. If you're looking for depth and complex characters, this isn't it.

Rated 3 stars on Goodreads

Soul Destruction: Unforgivable by Ruth Jacobs

I downloaded Soul Destruction: Unforgivable during a free download weekend. It sounded good, but this book dragged on and on. I almost feel criminal with the in-depth description of mixing a hit of heroin and crack because the author goes into great detail in several chapters. I couldn't help but think "is there a point to this book?" In fact, the plot doesn't even pick up until about 70% of the way through, and even then, the author just kind of muddles through. The main character, Shelley, isn't a sympathetic character at all, and there are times when she's downright detestable. Chapters seem unfinished and for the most part left me asking "and then what happened? Why?" There was just a sense of vagueness around the whole thing.









Rated 1 star on Goodreads

"Not the One You Had in Mind," said the Lord by Gail D. Bentley

I came to know Gail professionally in late January of 2013 as she traveled to Maine to train myself (and 30 others) on a job. Over two months, I came to know this wonderful woman of God, and have finally gotten a chance to read her book. I will preface this with a few things: Gail was called upon by God to write this book, and admitted to me she is not a big fan of reading or writing in general. It's also self-published. I bring these things up because this was a labor of love on her part, and editing was not done  by a big corporate publishing firm prior to print, so there are a few errors.

The message presented-- and very candidly so-- is a clear and concise guide for anyone of the Christian faith who is wondering when that special someone will come into their life. Gail tells the story of her own rebirth into Christianity and the path she took which eventually guided her to her husband. Well-researched with relevant passages from the King James version of the Bible, "Not the One You Have in Mind" is written for the person who may not enjoy reading but is  seeking a guide to find their one true spouse. At only 90 pages, it is a quick read, which allows the reader to stay engaged, and for more avid readers, an easy opportunity to re-read and absorb the messages within.


Rated 5 stars on Goodreads

Defiant Daughters, foreword by Carol J. Adams

I received my copy of  Defiant Daughters as part of a Goodreads First Reads contest. I will preface my review with a few pertinent facts: I have not read the original source material The Sexual Politics of Meat, I am a meat-eater, and, while self-identifying as feminist, I have a general bias against many hard-core ideologies, whether they be about feminism or diet.

Disclaimer of personal bias aside, Defiant Daughters was good for what it was: the anecdotal ruminations of women who had had their lives changed by reading The Sexual Politics of Meat. I couldn't help but notice, however, that the tales told by the women seemed to smack of white privilege at times, and at one point I made a note that the subtitle should be "White Guilt, or Ethnic Shame." While some of the essays contained within the book are by ethnically diverse authors, the whole thing seemed to me to be a lot of preachy, upper-middle-class privilege, a lot of displaced anger from childhood trauma, and at times the kind of feminism I loathe: man hating.

I found the last two essays in the book to be the most impactful, as they were more about food-appreciation and treating everyone like a decent human being rather than food-shame and guilt. I had a hard time relating to the women in the book and the over-all sanctimonious air of vegan superiority of many of the authors was a turn off for me. I have friends who would probably enjoy this book more than I did.



Rated 3 stars on Goodreads

Iced by Karen Marie Moning

I really wanted to like this book. I thought the premise sounded interesting but when I started to read, my enthusiasm started to fall apart, for several reasons. First, I absolutely can not stand the protagonist of the story, Dani "Mega" O'Malley. She's 14 years old, acts like a self-absorbed, self-important, oppositional for no reason,  and a Mary Sue. She's got super-speed! Super-hearing! Super-everything! OMG! Reading her first-person narrative made me want to claw my eyes out. And something else, aside from her constant narcissism and use of the word "dude"?-- instead of using the word "fuck" she instead uses "feck," which irks me on so many nitpicky levels. I have a pet peeve about people that self-censor.

While we talk about language use in this book, let's discuss how this novel is set in Dublin, Ireland, yet the language and syntax would never give that away. Reading the narrative and dialogue, one could assume that this was taking place in, say, California. In fact, the only person that  uses any little bit of dialect is the Highlander, Christian, who utters the occasional "och" and "lass" here and there.

Speaking of Christian... He is in love with/sexually attracted to Dani. Who is 14. In fact, there are several adult males fighting over Dani's future-loss-of-virginity which is creepy and gross. Moning has sexualized her underaged female protagonist to uncomfortable proportions.

Overall, the plot was "eh," the characters are thrown at the reader (this is book 6 of one series but book 1 of another series, an annoying trend I'm seeing in series these days)  without a lot of back story or character development. Most of the characters are fairly shallow, especially Dani, and the only one that I was remotely curious about (and the reason I'm even rating this at 2 stars) was Ryodan, because he was one I honestly couldn't figure out (and I appreciated that, while the world was ending he was still doing paperwork, because hey, it's business as usual).

Rated 2 stars on Goodreads

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

I will rarely suggest to anyone to watch a film adaptation prior to reading a novel, but in the case of Battle Royale, I actually think most people would benefit from it, and here's why. There are more than forty-two characters in this novel, and while each character gets some face time in the novel, Japanese names can be very similar and therefore hard to differentiate. I found that having watched the movie first, I was able to remember characters better because I had a visual reference already in place. This also eliminates the need for note-taking (which I find tedious and made novels such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy somewhat unenjoyable for me). There are also certain scenes in the book that (I don't want to give away anything) kind of fell flat but the director of the movie, Kinji Fukasaku really brough to life. Sure, there was tension and high drama in some of the scenes in the book, but being a translation, the impact, the original author's intent, may not come across as effectively. So, my recommendation: watch the movie, it's fantastic. Watch it before reading the book or just after if you just can't bring yourself to watch a movie before reading the book, but watch it. You can stream it on Netflix.

What initially drove me to read Battle Royale (aside from enjoying the movie) were the constant lamentations by people that The Hunger Games was just a ripoff of Battle Royale. I honestly don't find this to be the case. There are similarities. Of course there are. The idea of children fighting each other is actually a pretty common theme in dystopian novels. However, in Battle Royale, the characters are living in a society with a possible shadow-puppet dictator (as theorized by one of the characters) and while the youth population is on the decline, the "games" are still held for purported scientific reasons that hold no social benefit (unlike The Hunger Games, where the objective  was winning food for the district). To say that one is wholly based off the other is really a very shallow comparison at best.

While the primary characters that you follow are Shuya, Noriko, and Shogo, each student (or group of students) gets at least one chapter told from their point of view, which I appreciated. This is not just a book about killing, but rather a book about the human condition, and what shapes us as an individual and how we make the choices we make. The personalization of each chapter also gives the reader more insight into the government and the state of society as it exists in the timeframe of the novel. This type of effective storytelling makes a dauntingly thick novel an easy, enjoyable, and quick read.

Rated 5 stars on Goodreads