Babysitter

 

Joyce Carol Oates's books are sometimes hit or miss, but this one was pretty good. Set in Detroit in the late 1970s, there is a serial killer the press has dubbed "Babysitter", killing kids. Hannah isn't worried about her own two small children, though. She lives in a wealthy suburb and has a nanny. Things like that don't happen to people like *her*. 

However, Hannah does start to have an affair with a man she only knows by his initials, Y.K. Y.K. and Babysitter are all tied together, but I don't want to spoil how. Hannah was one of those people who does insanely stupid things, knows she's doing insanely stupid things, and keeps on doing them anyway, so I could totally relate :)

The Island

 

"The Island" by Adrian McKinty was really good, I enjoyed it. 

A widower with two teenagers, Tom, recently married a much younger woman named Heather. Tom is a surgeon and he's been asked to speak at a conference in Australia, so he, Heather, Olivia, and Owen decide to make it a vacation. While they're out sightseeing one day they run across a man who tells them about a private island where they can see koalas and other native animals in the wild. The kids, of course, are dying to go but the man warns them that the family that owns the island doesn't like trespassers and demands a large amount of money to take them over on the ferry. Tom finally gives in to the kids and away they go. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say they really shouldn't have done that. Their excursion turns into a test of survival.  

Freezing Cold Takes

 

A fun, quick football related book. Segal looks back on the history of "hot" takes in football and exposes some of the more ridiculous (in hindsight) ones. Ryan Leaf is probably the best known of all of the failures. He was so hyped and turned out to be a complete dud. Of course many predicted that Green Bay was making a huge mistake with Brett Favre and again with Aaron Rodgers (obviously both quarterbacks worked out pretty well). Tom Brady was not well thought of and many in New England were dismayed when the Patriots picked him in the draft, since they had a terrific franchise quarterback with Drew Bledsoe. You get the idea 😃

The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough; The Reivers

 

So I watched the new Netflix series about Jeffrey Dahmer last week. I had forgotten how disgusting and gross his crimes were. Evan Peters did a terrific job of playing Dahmer, he was so creepy. This was the only book my library owned about him (I have two others myself, one was written by a childhood friend called "My Friend Dahmer" and the other one tried unsuccessfully to make the case that Dahmer killed little Adam Walsh, called "Dahmer's Dirty Little Secret"). It was written while he was still alive, so it was a bit startling to read about Dahmer in the present tense. It honestly felt pretty slapdash, like she just cranked it out to cash in on the case while it was still hot. I've requested Dahmer's father's book from another library, so I'm curious to hear his side of things. 

And, to the surprise of no one, after reading the biography on William Faulkner last week, I had to reread one of my favorites, "The Reivers". His last book, and one of his funniest, too. It takes place in 1905. Lucius Priest is the oldest son of Maury Priest, and grandson to "the Boss". The Boss owns one of the few automobiles in town and his employee, Boon, drives it for him. Lucius's other grandfather passes away, and his mom, dad, and grandparents head out of town for the funeral. Boon takes advantage of the Boss being away to take the car to a trip to Memphis, and Lucius tags along. They both know it's wrong to steal the car, even though they fully intend to bring it back, but the temptation is such that they can't help themselves. On the road to Memphis they find out one of Maury's employees at the livery stable, Ned, has stowed away in the back of the car. The three make their way to Miss Reba's house in Memphis, so Boon can visit with his special lady friend, Miss Corrie (in case you couldn't tell, Miss Reba's is a whorehouse). Ned ends up trading the car for a racehorse that won't actually run a race and coming up with a wild scheme to win a race and not only keep the horse but get the Boss's automobile back too. Lucius (who's 11, I think I should mention that) and Boon have no choice but to go along with Ned's crazy scheme. All sorts of hijinks ensue. Too much fun, it had me laughing out loud. God, Faulkner was such a national treasure.