Library Reads: James Patterson's Mistress

James Patterson co-writes with David Ellis on what has to be his 100th book now. For hardcore fans of Patterson it's one of his more enjoyable ones, and for those who don't like him, or you're giving his books a first try then you might want to hop over this one. It has some good moments, and some catchy twists, but the writing is very rushed and moments of the story sidetracks you. It's just like someone was in a frantic rush to give the character personality without ever making him seem real.

Summary: Ben is a reporter, but he's not like any other man. He's obsessed with certain thoughts that regard previous presidents, movie trivia, and his childhood tragedies. It doesn't help to put the death of as woman he has strong feelings for on that list of things that he can't stop thinking about. Diana Hotchkiss' has a mysterious death, and Ben can't help but want to invest his reporting skills into investigating her death. What he finds is a tangled secret life he was unaware of, but his feelings for her continue to press him on even with the threat of his life.

Library Reads: Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

It's true that the year that Beah was brought into being a child soldier doesn't match the year that it did start on record. Looking outside of that, and just reading this story as the focus of the review I think the author has created quite a brutal portrayal of what it was like up till the years he was able to find refuge. Also, this story doesn't even read as a guy trying to be the voice of what is going on in Africa. It would have been more helpful to read up on what was happening in that area of the world before reading just because he only goes into how his perspective was and what he lived through, and the history aspect is there, but small.

Summary: Ishmael Beah was only twelve when he fled from his village along with a few friends to avoid the attacks. He lost touch with his family as the war raged, and found himself fleeing from village to village to survive. Along with the war came the mistrust people there felt toward each other as well. This made it particularly difficult for Beah to find a place there as most villagers didn't trust any males. What would happen would be a four year struggle from being a young boy on the run, to being a child soldier, to now a 25 year old living in New York City.

Library Reads: Ben Sherwood's The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

This is one of those stories where you probably heard of the movie before you did the book. Actually, I had forgotten it was a book till I stumbled across it in the library. Thinking that it looked like a compelling story I picked it up. While the first half of the book really isn't intriguing it does hit it's stride about midway through. I guess I couldn't help thinking though was that this reminded me a lot of Nicholas Sparks, and the endorsement on the back from Sparks doesn't help. It's like Supernatural Sparks.

Summary: Charlie and his brother, Sam, have an unbreakable bond. After a tragic accident almost killed Charlie, and left his brother dead the two can still communicate. Sam appears in a graveyard to Charlie, and Charlie can also see the others that are buried there. Some move on, and others have stayed behind. Charlie meets Tess though. Tess is making an attempt to sail around the world though, so when Charlie learns that Tess shouldn't be where he is seeing her he discovers the truth. Charlie must choose between staying with his brother so he doesn't fade, or seeking out where Tess really is.

Library Reads: Max Brooks' World War Z

Certainly not what I expected. World War Z, the movie version, has come out, so naturally I wanted to try to read the book before reading the movie. The thing is I don't think that was necessary. The movie seems to be a story, whereas the book is a compilation of interviews that the interviewer has put together to chronicle the beginning, middle, and end of the zombie war. I can understand the cult appeal as the book tries to realistically portray every element of the living in a zombie apocalypse, but it has some things that really take away from the realness of the story.

Summary: What would you do if a zombie takeover happened? Many find themselves platooned in boats running from land, some in rebel cities, and others joining a war that involves a variety of methods to eliminate as many zombies as they can. There is a lot to consider when approaching the zombies though like how they might be digging into the ground to find food, or following those out to sea that are platooned, or just how the safest cities might be the ones we most associated with being the enemies.

Library Reads: Merry Christmas, Alex Cross

So after Kill Alex Cross I was unsure that Merry Christmas, Alex Cross would continue the series any better. Especially since the reviews seem just as lackluster. While it's not return to the better days it still does at least improve. The writing seems to be more Patterson by far. I also do like the return to seeming to more personally explore Alex Cross as a person then just trying to just get us involved by using certain propaganda to make an attachment with the character.

Summary: It's Christmas and Alex Cross' family just wants him home with them. He gets a call though that sends him out on two high profile cases, and he just hopes his family can understand that if he doesn't go he could have innocent lives on his mind that were lost by him refusing to show. One case involves a hostage situation where one man has went off the rails and is threatening his own family's life on Christmas. The other involves one of the FBI's most wanted terrorist who is plotting a disastrous train explosion in Washington D.C. With Alex being the best negotiator and  detective they go he believes it is on him.

Library Reads: James Patterson's Kill Alex Cross

The Alex Cross were fast paced, intense, mystery/thriller, novels when they first made their appearance in 1993 with Along Came a Spider, but it's now 2013 and James Patterson is still writing them. Kill Alex Cross is definitely the weakest so far, and shows that the Alex Cross series is probably only continuing because of the money behind it. Alex Cross didn't even sound like himself in the usual past books like this one, and why is Nana still alive? She was around 70 when the books first appeared in 1993! Even Patterson makes a joke about her age in this one.

Summary: The President's children, Ethan and Zoe are abducted at school, leaving the FBI in a frenzy as they search for clues to find them. This leaves them to call in one of the best detectives there is, Alex Cross. Along with the kidnappings a deadly contagion is leaving a trail of dead bodies and has showed in the D.C. water lines. The two seem to be connected, but Cross thinks someone involved is misleading them for one of the hugest cases that Cross has been on.

Library Reads: F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise

I think if this is the route of F. Scott Fitzgerald I will become less of a fan over time, though I will say this is his debut novel, so it's possible to cut some slack. Even with The Great Gatsby though everything seem to over thought out, and This Side of Paradise is even more so done that way. This leaves room for some great scenes and dialogue but otherwise nothing flows very naturally in the book. Also, Amory is very self involved and not too likable of a guy.

Summary: This Side of Paradise is a sort of semi-autobiographical account of Fitzgerald's own life conveyed through Amory Blaine. He starts out life as a prep school boy making friends that would last a very long time there. When growing old of the routine there though he sets off to make his own sort of way with girls and money. Amory is always hopeful he will pen a novel that will gain him fame, but many distractions come his way. He falls for the charming Rosalind, and gets swept up in a war before he can establish his own.

Library Reads: Roberts Bloch's Psycho

Robert Bloch wrote Psycho in 1959, a year before the much popular movie was released. While Hitchcock would love to probably be the sole one who brought this story to the masses, it was really Bloch who put the idea into motion and onto paper. The story is quite scary, but I would say it's definitely not the writing masterpiece I thought. What it's probably better innovative for is being a slasher, and I assume in the 50's such straight up gore was quite shocking.

Summary: Norman Bates runs Bates Motel with his mother. The two are quite close despite his mother's abusive ways, but there are also some horrors that live there, that have been there for some time, and someone is about to discover just how bad it's gotten. When Mary visits the motel on her way to meet her fiance, it raises concern to others when she goes missing. With a private investigator, a sheriff, her fiance, and her sister, now looking into what has happened it seems like a sure thing that all Norman's secrets will be revealed.

Library Reads: J.K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy

Mixed reviews followed the first novel after the ending of her much popular series, Harry Potter. I think honestly it was the expectations that gave people the varying perceptions of her writing though. The Casual Vacancy takes time to grow on you, I will warn. It isn't till about hundred pages on that you really feel the weight of the book and the character development that ends up touching you. She has a way with bringing out human qualities and giving people something to fight for in her books. While some of the characters might fall into the mold that seems closely tied to some of the characters in Harry Potter, her first book after the series proves she should have a long career as an author.

Summary: Pagford is a small town who seems to have always felt a reason to protect themselves from the next door, Vargile. When the parish councilor dies, Barry, the town is left in a huge war as three of it's inhabitants, Colin, Miles, and Simon run against each other to grab the seat. This results in an ugly battle. Unknowingly, there are a lot of forces behind the scenes, their children for instant, who have a huge say in what happens.

Library Reads: Therese Anne Fowler's Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

I think Zelda Fitzgerald might be one of my favorite historical figures now. I did do my own research on her while reading just to get an idea of what was fact, and what was added to bring some interesting twist to the story. Of course, I think you have to keep in their are two sides of the story as well, and this is novel is wrote in first person. Being from her point of view, you have to remember you have one side of the story.

Summary: Zelda is just a girl from Montgomery Alabama who could only dream of the big life that involves the city.  When she meets F. Scott Fitzgerald she falls for him, and even waits out the couple of years it takes for him to be ready to marry. Marrying him will uproot her life from the life she knows in the country though, and not all for the better. While she enjoys the parties, the drinking, and lavish life Fitzgerald's first novel's success brings, there are other parts of Zelda that begin to flare to make her life difficult like a stomach problem, and her fragile mental health. Everything she seems to find to over power the problems she has seems shuts down by higher powers than her though.

Library Reads: Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

So I'm a little shocked that Fight Club isn't on the list of 1001 books to read. It's one of Palahniuk's more popular novels oddly inspired by his coworkers lack of curiosity about his private after he arrived at work obviously having been in an altercation while on vacation.  Fight Club has such crazy characters that at times it can be difficult to involve myself in, but by the end the twist and turns are worth the pay off of reading.

Summary: The unnamed character who leads the story is attending therapy sessions to be in the company of other ill people though he is lying to them all about his own illness, cancer. Instead he suffers from insomnia. When he meets Tyler though his world changes, and he becomes apart of a Fight Club, which then grows into a bigger organization Project Mayhem. Tyler is a character who loves to cause chaos, and has even began sleeping with the girl he originally began falling for in therapy, Marla. Tyler wreaks havoc at his work places and also in his life, so when he decides to try to shut it down the world as he knew it also begins to crash.

Library Reads:Jay Ashers's Thirteen Reasons Why

In Jay Asher debut novel he finds a unique way to work around the narrative perspectives to make it from one person's while capturing the thoughts and feelings of another person's mind by incorporating tapes they have left behind. While this does take some getting used to it the way he tries to depict two people's live is unique, and appreciated as a way to mix up the way people might think of how you go about narrating someone's life.

Hannah Baker leaves thirteen reasons on tapes for those she feel were apart of her suicide in some way for them to listen to. While most the people affected her negatively, Clay finds he is one of the few on the tapes that she felt kindly to before taking her own life. Hannah shares how her first kiss, and the implications after that continued her on a downward spiral after the students begin a rumor of her sexual reputation around school. As Clay listens he is given the burden of knowing who these students are, and his own part he could have played before she died.

Library Reads:Wendelin Van Draanen's Flipped

There honestly is not enough good books about kids transitioning between their childhood and teen years. Flipped is definitely one that is suitable for that age group though. While the 8th graders in the story seems a little too young for their age it still introduces concepts and themes that are important for that age group. Considering that middle schoolers can be the worst about bullying this book really tries to tackle the idea. It does end up a little bit fairy tale, but one that does try to say that even when people seem lost they are still able to be redeemed while others we have to ignore.

Since childhood Bryce has been running from Julie, and Julie has been chasing Bryce that is until their 8th grade year when things flip. Bryce begins truly learning about Julie and her family, and after all these years of believing she was crazy for chasing him to be friends he begins to understand the judgmental perception he had set up of her. Julie continues to reach out though, but when she finds him throwing away the eggs she gave him it is the final straw for her, and she begins shifting away from him. The more Bryce attempts to reach out to her though the more mess ups that happen along the way.

Library Reads: Veronica Roth's Divergent

Veronica Roth has wrote a compelling novel with Divergent, but sadly it might suffer from being in the shadow of The Hunger Games, and to be honest I did like Divergent a bit better. Divergent seems to be a tad more introspective than The Hunger Games, and overall more mature. The good thing is the two novels are very different in story. The lead characters don't even seem similar. Katniss is very sacrificial, and has the ability to step up defend what is left of her family. Beatrice honestly seems a little bit more unlikable but real. She has to sort of hone a part of her personality, and you see a lot of growth as far as who she is by the beginning and end.

Beatrice lives in a new version of Chicago. Everyone is divided into different factions by a certain age, and if you don't fit then you become factionless. What's worse is that if you register as being Divergent it could get you killed, though no one is completely sure why Divergents are such a threat. Beatrice chooses Dauntless as her new faction over her current one she is born into, Abnegation. First she has to pass initiation to become a member though. While she is facing some of the toughest challenges of her life she is also finding out a plan that the Erudite have to attack Abnegation, her old faction where her family currently resides.

Library Reads: Janet Finch's White Oleander

While a really good book Janet Fitch it also a really depressing book with characters who just sort of seem to wallow in their problems. They don't really try to change the patterns, but instead show how the mistakes of other become the ones that others will repeat after them as an example.  With the foster home setting it almost reads as an observation of the broken human condition, and the need to survive than one of someone overcoming those setbacks to become someone to break those patterns.

Astrid watches as her mother falls in love with a new man, but when things go awry in her relationship she murders him, and is sentenced to time in prison. This leaves Astrid to the mercy of foster homes, after vying for her mother's attention for so long. Now she is in a mixture of environments where sometimes she finds love, and sometimes she doesn't. Most the homes all have some sort of problem if they seem perfect. Astrid is growing into a young woman in an environment where she begins exploring her sexuality dangerously, forming a raw view of men, and strives to fulfill the want of a mother figure she never had.

Library Reads: M.T. Anderson's Feed

Feed is a rather depressing book told from the perspective of Titus. Some might like the character, and some might not because of the choices he make that seem very harsh, and easily teen like. What Anderson maintains though is an unique style of writing with the story line putting you something of mind of George Orwell, or Kurt Vonnegut except a novel geared more toward teenagers.

Titus is a teen growing up in a world where everyone has a feed. These feeds provide the opportunity for people to instant message one another through them, but they also are fed advertisements through these same feeds in their heads. Titus seems like a normal teen otherwise who is partying with his friend, and just trying to get through school despite the crumbling use of language since kids aren't dependent on it anymore. Then Titus meets Violet, who is a little different from everyone else because her feed wasn't installed when she was born, but instead a few years after. This has caused her some issues, and one night after being hacked at a club her body begins deteriorating. Titus is faced with a new reality that he hasn't had to witness, and has been ignoring happening in his friends. The feeds are not only making the world less intelligent, but they also could be ruining the human race's bodies.

Library Reads: The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Midnight

Thankfully, you don't have to have recently read the previous books in the series to keep up easily when you pick up this one. That might even extend to if you haven't read any of the books previously in the series. The last one in the series Shadow Souls, sort of seemed somewhat like a mess, but with the ending L.J Smith always provides an ending to get you to pick up the next one.

Elena has been able to rescue Stefan from the Dark Dimension with the help of Damon. There were some consequences despite the fact that they all made it out fine though. Stefan is weak from his time spent in prison there, and Elena can't provide the amount of blood he needs. Damon has been turned into a human by strange powers. Damon is desperate to be a vampire again, and even though Fell's Church is in trouble he would rather spend his time finding someone who can help him become a vampire again. In his search though he accidently carries Bonnie with him back into the Dark Dimension where humans are basically slaves. Elena and Stefan leave to rescue Bonnie, leaving Matt and Meredith to take care of Fell's Church. The fact that children are being possessed and turned evil has another source that is closer than any of them previously thought.

Library Reads: John Steinbeck's East of Eden

Cathy Ames will probably be the scariest literary figure you ever read in any book, and this isn't a horror novel. John Steinbeck takes his writings on the human condition to a whole new level in East of Eden. Steinbeck show the thin line that humans always travel between good and evil in his writings like The Pearl, but East of Eden is like a journey through one lineage to defeat the cycle that has almost destroyed their family.

Beginning by establishing the setting on a farmland in California's Salinas Valley, this novel tells of two families, the Trasks, and the Hamiltons  as their lives begin to cross paths. Their lives are loosley based on the the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Though it is shaped from this story the characters deal with the struggle of finding their own identities apart from the ones their family has established, the good they want to find in themselves, and the pride they want their loved ones to have in them as they work to succeed in carrying on their own name. The novel builds up to two men, Cal and Aron, who have to face the own holes that their family has dug in the hopes of sorting out their feelings for the love of the same woman, Abra.