Book Review: Revival by Stephen King

Revival by Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: November 11. 2014
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

I am not a Constant Reader of King’s so this will give my review a different perspective then if I were. After perusing reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, it seems like most of the five star reviews are from people proclaiming that King is God and can write no wrong. The last book of King’s I read was The Shining so I’m reviewing Revival purely on its own merits, not as the work of a god or compared to anything else King has written.

The book focuses on Jamie’s life and how Charles Jacobs weaves in and out of Jaime’s life throughout the years. Jaime is not a likeable guy once he starts to grow up. He’s a smug rock musician and drug addict. Still, he had an interesting story to tell. There is a lot of discussion about religion since Jaime grows up Methodist and Charles is the pastor at his childhood church and later becomes an evangelical healer. The philosophical questions surrounding religion that Jacobs brings up on various occasions were my favorite parts of this book.

I found the story engaging enough to keep reading it but it took a long to time to get to the “scary” stuff. I wouldn’t have expected anything scary except that the cover promises the most terrifying conclusion that Stephen King has ever written. The “terrifying conclusion” seemed rushed and contrived. I didn’t understand why Jacobs insisted that Jaime had to be the one who helped him. It seemed to me anyone could have. It felt like King had reached the end of the novel and just picked out a supposedly scary scenario at random for an ending.

I think Revival was just okay. Certainly if you are new to King, you would want to choose a different book to start with, probably one of his older classic horror novels.

Book Review: The Hidden Child

The Hidden Child by Camilla Läckberg
Publisher: HighBridge Company
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Narrator: Simon Vance
Length: 15 hours
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among boxes in her late mother’s attic. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig into her family’s past to finally uncover the reasons why.

Her inquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher who had been among her mother’s circle of friends during the Second World War, but her questions there are met with bizarre and evasive replies. Two days later the man is brutally murdered in a house he shared with his brother, a Nazi war criminal investigator with the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica’s husband, on paternity leave with their newborn child, soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? The answers may lie in Erica’s mother’s wartime diaries, but can they find them before dark secrets from over sixty years ago surface to destroy them all?

The Hidden Child is the fifth book in Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka crime series. It can stand alone though. Some of the characters have storylines that continue from previous books but I was able to follow along without having read all the other books.

This book had so many characters that it was hard to keep them all straight, especially listening to the audio book. Since the cast was so large, the narrator couldn’t come up with a unique voice for each one, which didn’t help my confusion. He did have a great dramatic tone and read with emotion.

I actually enjoyed the subplots involving the secondary characters more than I enjoyed the murder mystery that was the center of the plot. The timeline kept bothering me. I could never figure out how Erica’s mother could have been a teenager at the end of World War II and still have been young enough to have been Erica and her younger sister’s mother when they were born. I also couldn’t follow the revelation that Erica has towards the end that opens the murder mystery wide open. It didn’t make sense to me – it seemed like she came to her discovery out of the blue. So I much preferred reading about the police chief falling in love and learning to salsa dance and the police woman who was starting a family.

I didn’t like this book as much as I did The Stonecutter (the third book in the series and the only other one I’ve read) but I liked it enough that I want to keep reading more of the books in this series.

(I received this audio book courtesy of the Sold Gold Reviewers program at Audiobook Jukebox.)

Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Paperback Release Date: February 7, 2012
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Before I Go To Sleep is the story of Christine, a woman who has both anterograde amnesia, which is the ability to create new memories and retrograde amnesia, which is the ability to recall one’s past. Because of this, every morning she starts over, her mind a blank slate. She wakes up not knowing where she is and who she is. Her husband must explain it to her every day – that she had an accident that left her with amnesia, he is her husband, etc.

Christine starts working with a doctor who wants to help reverse her amnesia. The therapy mostly involves her keeping a journal of what happens to her every day and then reading it every morning to fill herself in on who she is and what she’s been doing. Her husband doesn’t approve of her being in therapy so she must do this in secret. Along the way, she discovers some secrets herself.

I’ll admit that enjoying this book requires some suspension of disbelief. It’s told in first person from Christine’s view point so the narrative of the book is her journal entries. Her journal entries are much more descriptive and detailed than you’d expect but the fact that she was a writer before the accident explains some of that. And it would be a pretty awful book to read if the journal entries weren’t written well. I thought this was the best device to use so that the story could be told in first person. It helped me identify with Christine’s confusion. I was really confused too. In fact, I was surprised at how many twists were in this book. Several times I thought I had everything figured out but I never actually did.

I loved this book – it kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, going over everything in my mind, trying to figure the mysteries out. A movie adaptation of Before I Go To Sleep was recently released, starring Nicole Kidman. I’m interested to see how this story translates to the screen. I think it would be very hard to do. I definitely recommend the novel.

2014 – The Year In Books

I’ve been doing this meme for a few years now. I like summing up my year and remembering the books I’ve read.

How many books read in 2014?
I read 53 books this year.

How many fiction and non fiction?
I read 14 non-fiction and 39 fiction books in 2014. In 2013 year my percentage of non-fiction was 20 percent. In 2014 it went up to 26  percent. I think that’s a pretty good percentage.

Male/Female author ratio?
I read 40 female authors and 13 male authors. 75 percent female authors!

Favorite book of 2014?
My favorite books of 2014 were Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and The Vacationers by Emma Straub. The Vacationers was the book I recommended the most to other people. My favorite non-fiction book was Dog Whistle Politics.

Least favorite?
No one-star or two star reviews in 2014! That’s pretty amazing – I must be getting better at choosing books. My least favorite of my three star reviews was People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
I didn’t abandon any books this year.

Oldest book read?
The oldest book I read was Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary. It was first published in 1952. I need to start catching up on the classics. I’ll set my goal low to read at least one book published before 1900 in 2015.

Newest?
The newest book I read was Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar. It will be published later this month.

Longest and shortest book titles?

The longest title is People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges by Jen Mann and the shortest title is Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan.

Any translated books?
The Son by JoNesbø  and The Hidden Child by Camilla Läckberg.

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?
I read three by Veronica Roth.

Any re-reads?
I re-read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and This is Where I Leave You by Jonathon Tropper to refresh before I saw the movie adaptations.

Favorite character of the year?
My favorite character was Lincoln from Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments. She does such a great job of writing adorable males. I want him for my boyfriend this year. Last year, Park from Rainbow’s Eleanor and Park was my boyfriend.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?
I went to Sweden, The Virgin Islands, India, England and Uganda.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
The Bees by Laline Paull which was recommended to me by my friend Kelly. I hadn’t heard of it before she mentioned it to me. I’m glad she did because I really liked it.

Which author was new to you in 2013 that you now want to read the entire works of?
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?
I’m not annoyed that I didn’t read any specific book but I am annoyed that I didn’t read any older classics.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?

Yes, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It’s a shame that it took her death to get me to finally read it. But I’m really glad I did; it was fabulous.

How was your year?

Book Review: Dog Whistle Politics

Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian Haney López
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date: January 13, 2014
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving “welfare queens” and “strapping young bucks” buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president.

In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney López offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform.

Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney López links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party’s increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class — white and nonwhite members alike.

I found Dog Whistle Politics utterly fascinating, horrifying and heartbreaking all at the same time. López defines dog whistling as “inaudible and easily denied in one range, yet stimulating strong reactions in another.”López dissects how dogwhistling started in the 1960s and let to the Republican party becoming the white man’s party. He is even handed though and takes Democrats to take as well.

His explanation and analysis of why being “color-blind” is actually harmful is one of the best I’ve ever read. My biggest take away from this book is what Lopez states repeatedly throughout – racism does not equal malice. It is our narrow, modern day definition of racism as overt words and deeds that have led many to believe that we are living in a post-racial society.

In the wake of recent race linked events, like the killing of unarmed suspects by police, this would be an excellent book to recommend to your friends that you would like to educate on what white privilege is and how being color-blind is actually not helpful. I consider myself pretty versed on race issues and I still learned a lot. Highly recommended for everyone.

(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine Voice program.)

Book Review: A Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer

A Nantucket Christmas by Nancy Thayer
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Release Date: October 29, 2013
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Holidays on this Massachusetts island are nothing short of magical, and the season’s wonderful traditions are much loved by Nicole Somerset, new to Nantucket and recently married to a handsome former attorney. Their home is already full of enticing scents of pine, baking spices, and homemade pie.

But the warm, festive mood is soon tempered by Nicole’s chilly stepdaughter, Kennedy, who arrives without a hint of holiday spirit. Determined to keep her stepmother at arm’s length—or, better yet, out of the picture altogether—Kennedy schemes to sabotage Nicole’s holiday preparations. Nicole, however, is not about to let anyone or anything tarnish her first Christmas with her new husband.

It’s Christmas time and you know what that means. Time for the cheesy, heartwarming Christmas books! Nantucket Christmas is the perfect mix of both. Sure, I knew pretty much exactly where the story was going about a fourth of the way in – much in the same way that you quickly figure out how a Lifetime movie will end once you start watching it. I didn’t mind this at all though. It was just what I wanted to get me even more into the Christmas spirit. I loved Nicole and her endless holiday cheer. I wanted to be her daughter by the end of the book.

There is conflict in the book but nothing too serious. Kennedy is a spoiled bitchy brat and I wanted to slap her silly at times. But it’s not like she was planning to murder Nicole or anything. And Kennedy’s mom was even worse than her! Luckily she didn’t play a big part in the book.

If you like to veg out watching a Lifetime movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon then this is the book for you. At only a little over 200 mass market sized pages, you will be able to finish it in one sitting. And you will have a smile on your face when you do.

Book Review: No Land’s Man by Aasif Mandvi

No Land’s Man by Aasif Mandvi
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: November 4, 2014
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aasif Mandvi is probably most familiar to you as the Senior Muslim Correspondent on The Daily Show. At least that’s how he was most familiar to me. In listening to this book, I discovered that he had a very successful career before The Daily Show, including winning an Obie for his one-man show Sakina’s Restaurant.

No Land’s Man is not a humor book per se. It’s a collection of stories from Aasif’s life. Some are definitely funny but some are heartbreaking as well, like the one from his time at an English boarding school. He is a very talented writer and is capable of inspiring a wide gamut of emotions from the listener. The boarding school story almost made me cry. I think the story about starring in a film directed by Ismail Merchant frustrated me as much as it did Aasif. And the story about crashing Brooke Shields’ party made me laugh out loud.

The title No Land’s Man comes from the fact that Aasif was born in India, moved to England as a baby and then immigrated with his family to Florida as a teenager. The overriding theme is about Aasif’s search for identity given his wide experience with different cultures. A side note – I was unaware of how much racism brown people experience in England. That part of Aasif’s childhood was definitely hard.
Now you are wondering, what about The Daily Show? Does he mention that? Yes, he does. He talks about his path to becoming a regular on The Daily Show and the effect it had on both him and the wider American Muslim community.

Aasif narrates his book himself, a wise choice. It’s the same tone he uses on The Daily Show. A little loud and staccato but it works. This is a great book to learn more about Aasif and about what a brown person must go through to become a successful actor in America. At around four and half hours it’s a quick listen and definitely worth your time.

(I received this audiobook courtesy of the publisher.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks to all the authors, booksellers, bloggers and publishers for enriching  my life with bookish goodness.

Page to Screen: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

If you’re a Hunger Games fan, then you’ve certainly seen The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 by now.  So let’s discuss what we thought of it. I will avoid spoilers since some of you may not have seen it yet.

Firstly, I was skeptical that the first half of Mockingjay – and the movie does end at almost the exact middle of the book – could be stretched into a two-hour movie. After all, it’s not an epic tome like Breaking Dawn or the last Harry Potter book. Mockingjay did what I thought it would do. It told the behind the scenes story of which Katniss was unaware. These scenes are not in the book since the book is told in first person by Katniss. Some of the physical action is expanded and made more dramatic as well. Suzanne Collins, the author of the book, was part of the team that adapted the screenplay so I assume that she approved of these additions. Entertainment Weekly likened this approach to the movie as playing with the font and margins to make a term paper longer. I disagree – I liked how the book was adapted and I thought it was still a very faithful adaptation.

Another issue with dividing one book into two movies is where to end the first movie. I thought this movie was about two scenes too long. When you see it, you will know exactly what I’m talking about. Ending two scenes prior would have been a much more suspenseful climax for people watching the movie that haven’t read the books.

The major deviation from the book is that a few minor characters are combined into one composite character. I thought this was a brilliant move and kept the movie from getting bogged down in a subplot  in the book that I didn’t care much about anyway and actually found a little confusing.

Overall, I really liked this movie. I wish it wasn’t going to be a full year before the last movie is released!

What did you think?

Launch Party: Winning Marriage by Marc Solomon

Last night I attended the Kansas City launch party for Marc Solomon’s new book Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits – and Won. Missouri State Senator Jolie Justus spoke first and introduced Solomon. Solomon is currently the National Campaign Director of Freedom to Marry, an organization that campaigns for same-sex couples to have the right to marry in the United States.

I just got the book last night so I haven’t read it yet but I’m really looking forward to reading it soon. Solomon said that it’s about all the advocacy and behind the scenes battles that it took to go from zero states allowing same-sex marriage in 2003 to where the movement to gain marriage rights for all same-sex couples stands today. (See the end of this post for the publisher’s description of the book.)

My biggest take-way from his talk was this: He said that before 2003, most  people said that legal same-sex marriage in the whole country was impossible and that now only ten years later, most people see legal same-sex marriage for all states as inevitable. He cautioned to avoid thinking of something as either impossible or inevitable. If it’s impossible, what’s the point of working to change it? If it’s inevitable, then it’s okay to stop working because it will happen no matter what.  We need to keep working to push the momentum in the movement forward and not get complacent now that it seems that same-sex marriage rights are coming quickly to more and more states.

Publisher’s Description of Winning Marriage:

Ten years ago no state allowed same-sex couples to marry, support for gay marriage nationwide hovered around 30 percent, and politicians everywhere thought of it as the third rail of American politics—draw near at your peril. Today, same-sex couples can marry in seventeen states, polls consistently show majority support, and nearly three-quarters of Americans believe legalization is inevitable.

In Winning Marriage Marc Solomon, a veteran leader in the movement for marriage equality, gives the reader a seat at the strategy-setting and decision-making table in the campaign to win and protect the freedom to marry. With depth and grace he reveals the inner workings of the advocacy movement that has championed and protected advances won in legislative, court, and electoral battles over the decade since the landmark Massachusetts ruling guaranteeing marriage for same-sex couples for the first time.

From the gritty battles in the state legislatures of Massachusetts and New York to the devastating loss at the ballot box in California in 2008 and subsequent ballot wins in 2012 to the joyous victories of securing President Obama’s support and prevailing in the Supreme Court, Marc Solomon has been at the center of one of the great civil and human rights movements of our time. Winning Marriage recounts the struggle with some of the world’s most powerful forces—the Catholic hierarchy, the religious right, and cynical ultraconservative political operatives—and the movement’s eventual triumph.