Merci Suarez Changes Gears; The Castle on Sunset; Darkness on the Edge of Town

I don't normally read children's books, but this one was recommended to me by a children's librarian I work with, and I enjoyed it. Merci lives in Florida with her extended family: her parents, older brother, her grandparents, her aunt, and her cousins. She's particularly close to her grandfather, but he's changing: getting angry for no reason, forgetting things, wandering off. She's having a hard time fitting in at her fancy private school (she's on a scholarship), and entering puberty, so it all hits the poor girl at once. It was nicely done. 

I really enjoyed "The Castle on Sunset". The Chateau Marmont in Hollywood was always known for being a place where celebrities could go and not be bothered by anyone. It was a low key kind of place until John Belushi overdosed and died in one of the bungalows. It's gained in popularity in recent years, getting a reputation as the cool place to hang out, but it took awhile to get there. 

I enjoyed this Stranger Things novel more than the last one, although there were some elements that just didn't work. It tells some of Hopper's backstory: it's 1977, and he's living and working as a detective in New York City. The City is in bad shape: facing bankruptcy, and getting worse by the day. A new gang shows up on the radar called the Vipers, led by a man who calls himself Saint John. Hop agrees to work with the Feds and go undercover to find out what mischief the Vipers are planning.

You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried; Iron, Fire, and Ice; State of the Union

After reading "The Ultimate History of the 80s Teen Movie" a few weeks ago, I was keen to read something a little more fun about the same topic. I've had this book on my "to read" list for years, so I finally just read it. I enjoyed it, she interviewed a lot of the main actors and actresses from a few iconic 80s movies. Mostly John Hughes films, but she also talked about "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Say Anything". It did get a little repetitive at times, but it wasn't bad.

I don't know why I couldn't get into this book. It seemed right up my alley: the real life history behind the events that inspired George R. R. Martin's "Game of Thrones". I love "GoT", I love British history (especially anything to do with the War of the Roses), and his writing style was pretty good: slightly sarcastic without overdoing it. Yet I had to renew this book twice, so I had it out for 9 weeks, and slogged through it a tiny bit at a time, it just didn't hold my attention. I think it was probably because he covered so much history in such short snippets, and of course all the names start to get confusing, since there were like, three male names in all of Europe at the time. I really wanted to enjoy it more than I actually did.

I watched "State of the Union" on Sundance and enjoyed it, so I checked out the book. I was a little disappointed, it literally was exactly like the show, almost word for word, with nothing extra. It was a quick read, which was nice, but I was hoping for a little more. Tom and Louise meet up in a pub every week before their marriage counseling to discuss what went wrong with their marriage. I found it very realistic, the conversations descend into silliness and mundane, like conversations do when you've known someone a very long time.

Lessons from Lucy

I love Dave Barry. I can't believe he's 70! I remember reading "Dave Barry Turns 40", and it makes me feel very old (it's not the only thing that makes me feel old, by the way. Pretty much everything does these days). Dave and his wife and daughter have a sweet dog named Lucy. As you can see by her picture, Lucy is getting up in years but Lucy is still a very happy dog. Dave came to a point in his life where he realized he wasn't very happy anymore, and decided to see if he could be more like Lucy. Cherishing and finding the joy in everyday things, like walks and meeting new people. Staying in touch with his friends and trying to have fun. Appreciating all that he has. They were very sweet lessons with just enough touch of humor to keep them from being maudlin. We as humans don't deserve dogs. Like Dave, I will try to be more like Lucy, too.

50 Things That Aren't My Fault

I grew up reading the "Cathy" comic strip, I was obsessed with it in grade school and junior high, and bought all the books and read them over and over. I could totally identify with Cathy: even at 11, I hated my own body in a bathing suit (which, I just realized, is super sad. Oh well). Cathy stopped writing her iconic comics in order to focus on her daughter. I enjoyed her book of essays very much. I was expecting to laugh a lot (which I did) but I also cried, too. She talks a lot about taking care of her parents, who were in their nineties (her father passed, I don't know if her mother is still alive, she didn't say), and a lot of the things she's dealing with I am too with my own parents, who are a little younger but definitely getting to that stage in life. I don't have a college aged daughter to worry about, but I can empathize. It was touching and real and exactly what I needed right now :)

The Plaza

I've never been to New York, so I've never seen the iconic Plaza Hotel, but I've certainly heard about it. The Plaza as it stands now was built in 1907 and the facade is a historical landmark that can't be changed. Most of the interior, however, is up for grabs. The first half of the book was very interesting, about the eccentric characters who lived in the Plaza (it was more like an apartment complex to a lot of people than a hotel), like Kay Thompson, who created "Eloise", and the 39 widows: wealthy dowagers who haunted the lobby every day, people watching. The second half of the book wasn't nearly as interesting, it descended into mind numbing details over complicated financial deals as the hotels switched owners like most people switch underwear. It was still worth the read.

Shaker

I started reading the book and the next day Southern California experienced its worst earthquake in decades. Coincidence? No doubt. Creepy? Definitely.
Roy is a hit man from New York who is sent to Los Angeles to kill a man. He arrives a few days after L.A. experiences a 8+ earthquake which has wreaked havoc on the city. Roy is able to carry out his assignment, but then gets lost trying to find where he parked his rental car and happens upon a group of gang bangers harassing a jogger. He steps in to attempt to help, and the whole thing is captured on video by a neighbor on his phone. Even though Roy is injured during the altercation, the press and public are lauding him as a hero. His face is splashed all over the news, not the best thing for a hit man trying to keep a low profile. The bangers are after him for making them look foolish, and they aren't the only ones looking to settle the score with Roy. It was a darkly humorous, really fun book. I enjoyed it.

Midnight Assassin; The Sentence is Murder; The Ultimate History of the '80s Teen Movie

It's fascinating to me what ends up becoming part of the public knowledge and what ends up being forgotten. Several years before Jack the Ripper knifed his way through London, the Midnight Assassin terrorized Austin, Texas, killing servant girls in their homes in brutal ways. No one could catch him, the mayor and the police were at their wits' end, and then he just stopped. His crimes have largely been forgotten, while Jack the Ripper is a name almost everyone knows. There is a theory that Jack the Ripper and the Midnight Assassin were one in the same, since the Austin murders stopped right before Jack the Ripper began, but the killings were very different and the descriptions of the two men don't really match. It was very interesting and well written, I really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed Anthony Horowitz's "The Sentence is Death" even more. I'm in awe of how cleverly he inserts himself in these stories, how realistic they seem, and (a terrible thing to say about a murder mystery) but how fun they are to read. He seems like he has a really good time writing them, too.
Horowitz is once again paired up with former detective Daniel Hawthorne. A divorce attorney has been murdered (with an expensive bottle of wine, that was an unique way to do it) and there is no shortage of viable suspects. I can't say too much more without giving it away, but I love how he plants clues all along so that if you're paying very close attention and realize what he's doing, you can figure it out. I never do, but when he reveals in the end who did it, I look back and realize I could have figured it out all along. Very well done. 

"The Ultimate History of the '80s Teen Movie" wasn't what I was expecting, it was more academic than fun anecdotes, but it wasn't bad. I didn't watch a lot of the early '80s movies (I was too young), but I remember the later half of the decade very well. John Hughes didn't pioneer the teen movie, but he really made it his own. I could watch "Sixteen Candles" over and over again (well, I do, every time it's on TV). He talked a lot about what Hollywood got right and wrong with teens, and of course he drug a lot of politics into it, sometimes unnecessarily so, but hey, whatever makes you happy I guess. It could have benefited from an editor: he mentioned that "then Vice President Dan Quayle" liked "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" when it came out in 1986, only of course Dan Quayle wasn't Vice President in 1986. He also spelled "200 thousand dollars", and I literally stopped reading and stared at it for a minute, trying to wrap my brain around it. I have never seen it written that way. All in all, it was interesting.

Riverdale: Get Out of Town; If She Wakes

I was disappointed with the second "Riverdale" book. The first one was fairly decent, but this one was just boring. She has the characters voices down pat, but there was no story. Taking place after Archie goes on trial for murder, the gang (Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Archie) head back to Lodge Lodge to see if they can find any evidence Hiram might have left behind to exonerate Archie. The power goes out, someone leaves a basket of dead birds on the porch, it was all very silly. 

I really like Michael Koryta's books, they're always well written and suspenseful, and this one was no exception. Tara is given the task of picking up a well known scientist and bringing him back to her college for a dinner where he's the featured guest speaker. He acts very oddly on the ride over, wanting her to take a different route, show him a bridge, take selfies with him. Then he asks her to lock his phone in her car, which she does, moments before a van plows into them, killing the scientist and knocking Tara into the river. She's in a coma and the driver of the van is murdered a few days later. Three different people are after the phone, but once they find it, they need Tara to unlock it. I enjoyed it, and best of all it featured a Dodge Hellcat :)