The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

Started: 12/23/2024

Finished: 1/7/2025

Year: 2009

Pages: 288

Genre: History

Grade: B+

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "In April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and fourteen others set out for California on snowshoes, and, over the next thirty-two days, endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors."

Opinion: Recent shows have brought new light to this horrific journey. This book goes into depth about the daily struggle that everyone faced.

Sudden Death by David Rosenfelt

Started: 1/1/2025

Finished: 1/5/2025

Year: 2005

Pages: 306

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "First at the crime scene, Andy Carpenter wishes he had never seen the folded torso with the large red stain on its back. The victim is Tony Preston, wide receiver for the New York Jets, and the suspect is Kenny Schilling, the New York Giants' star running back, whose upcoming high-profile murder case will be the benchwarming Andy's chance to get back into the legal game."

Opinion: An interesting case...an interesting twist to Andy's personal life. 

Shallow Depths by Milan Skrecek

Started: 12/31/2024

Finished: DNF

Year: 2024

Pages: 228

Genre: literature

Grade: F

Reason for reading: librarything.com Early Reviwers program

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Our hero is a burnt-out cruise line Shopping Guide named Christina Delgado - a mid-twenties Latina spitfire. In a desperate bid to resolve her financial woes, Christina ventures into dangerous waters by starting to offer escort services to cruise ship guests.

"Christina's antagonists are formidable and reflect the seedy underbelly of the industries tied to cruise tourism. Sebastian Baeza, known as Bas, is the Cuban-born owner of an escort agency from which Christina begins to poach her recruits. He is ruthless and sees Christina's actions as a direct threat to his dominion. Then there's Artem Hadad, the vindictive manager of the largest jewelry chain across the Caribbean islands, Caribbean Diamonds and Gems. Artem is incensed by any sales that bypass his stores and will do anything within his considerable power to ensure Christina fails.

"But at its core, this book series is about Christina's internal battle. Her relentless pursuit of debt freedom blinds her to the risks she takes and the relationships she sabotages. Her inability to accept help due to her pride and stubbornness only isolates her further, driving her deeper into her vices. By the series end, Christina faces a pivotal moment of self-realization.

"She begins to understand that true courage isn't just about facing external dangers but also about confronting and accepting her vulnerabilities.

"Throughout this novel, and the book series, the interpersonal dynamics aboard the cruise ship add layers of intrigue and drama. Christina’s relationship with Emily Baker, her unlikely ally and confidant, provides a counterpoint to her conflicts with Artem and Bas. Emily, with her polished appearance and kleptomaniac tendencies, offers a mirror to Christina’s own flawed nature but also represents a potential pathway to redemption. Their partnership, fraught with risks and reluctant trust, explores themes of loyalty and betrayal within the claustrophobic ecosystem of the ship."

Opinion: A thorough review is posted on Library Thing. The blurb from Amazon is an example of how scattered the writing seems to be.

Betrayal at Blackthorn Park by Julia Kelly

Started: 12/26/2024

Finished: 12/30/2024

Year: 2024

Pages: 310

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with the series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Freshly graduated from a rigorous training program in all things spy craft, former typist Evelyne Redfern is eager for her first assignment as a field agent helping Britain win the war. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. Making matters worse, her handler is to be David Poole, a fellow agent who manages to be both strait-laced and dashing in annoyingly equal measure. However, Evelyne soon realizes that Blackthorn Park is more than meets the eye, and an upcoming visit from Winston Churchill means that security at the secret weapons research and development facility is of the utmost importance.

"When Evelyne discovers Blackthorn Park’s chief engineer dead in his office, her simple assignment becomes more complicated. Evelyne must use all of her―and David’s―detection skills to root out who is responsible and uncover layers of deception that could change the course of the war."

Opinion: A pretty good mystery. Good continuation of the series. I continue to like how strong this main female character is especially given the time that the books take place.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Started: 12/10/2024

Finished: 12/26/2024

Year: 2022

Pages: 355

Genre: literature

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

"Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

"Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late."

Opinion: Predictable but enjoyable. Not worth the hype but any book that can get people reading is a good thing. The book is easily readable for most but I don't think that it lives up to the hype that it got-but then again, I don't think that most of the more popular books are good or my cup of tea.

The Bone Collection by Kathy Reichs

Started: 12/18/2024

Finished: 12/23/2024

Year: 2016

Pages: 379

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "In First Bones, a prequel to Reichs’s first novel, Déjà Dead, she at last reveals the tale of how Tempe became a forensic anthropologist. In this never-before-published story, Tempe recalls the case that lured her from a promising career in academia into the grim but addictive world of criminal investigation. (It all began with a visit from a pair of detectives—and a John Doe recovered from an arson scene in a trailer.) The collection is rounded out with three more stories that take Tempe from the low country of the Florida Everglades, where she makes a grisly discovery in the stomach of an eighteen-foot Burmese python, to the heights of Mount Everest, where a frozen corpse is unearthed. No matter where she goes, Tempe’s cases make for the most gripping reading."

Opinion: Unlike most collections, I enjoyed all of the stories. It was interesting to see how Tempe got into becoming a forensic anthropologist. There was some reference to stuff that hasn't happened in the main books but nothing that takes away from Tempe's story.

Does the Noise in my Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler

Started: 12/16/2024

Finished: DNF

Year: 2011

Pages: 376

Genre: memoir

Grade: F

Reason for reading: library book, fan of Aerosmith

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? is the rock memoir to end all rock memoirs — the straight-up, no-holds-barred story of Grammy Award-winning, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and all around superstar legend Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith (and celebrity judge on American Idol).

"The rock and roll epic that is Tyler’s life begins with Tyler’s youth in the Bronx, tracing his early music career and influences, his legendary partnership with Joe Perry, the meteoric rise, fall, and rise of Aerosmith over the last three decades, their music, Tyler’s battles with substance abuse, his epic romantic life, his relationship with his four children (including actress Liv Tyler), life on the road and in the spotlight, the economics of the rock star business --and all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll that anyone could ask for.

"In Tyler’s own words: 'I’ve been mythicized, Mick-icized, eulogized and fooligized, I’ve been Cole-Portered and farmer’s-daughtered, I’ve been Led Zepped and 12-stepped. I’m a rhyming fool and so cool that me, Fritz the Cat, and Mohair Sam are the baddest cats that am. I have so many outrageous stories, too many, and I’m gonna tell ’em all. All the unexpurgated, brain-jangling tales of debauchery, sex & drugs, transcendence & chemical dependence you will ever want to hear. And this is not just my take, this is the unbridled truth, the in-your-face, up-close and prodigious tale of Steven Tyler straight from the horse’s lips.'"

Opinion: I knew that Tyler had a drug history-never realized it was to the extent that it was. There was just too much and hard to tell what was true and what wasn't, given his mindset at the time.