Time to Thank

This book hit me in my feels. I cried at the end. It was really heartwarming, just sad. 

They don't make 'em like Stanley Guttenberg anymore. Hardworking, honest, a loving husband and great dad who gave everything to make sure his kids had a good life. He believed in his only son, Steve, giving him money to go out to Hollywood just days after he graduated from high school. Steve ended up achieving his dreams of movie fame, and managed to stay out of trouble. No doubt because of the solid upbringing he experienced. 

Steve adored his father. They had a great relationship. When Stanley's kidneys fail and he needs dialysis, Steve starts making the trek from California to Arizona every week to help take care of his dad. Those road trips gave him time to think about all the good times he shared with him. 

It was a beautiful tribute to a wonderful man, written by his loving son. It made me so grateful for the time and the memories I have of my dad. I only had 42 years with him, and I would have loved 42 more. Steve says something similar in his book. It's never enough time. Cherish it before it's too late. 
 

Fast Charlie; Trailer Park Parable; Behind

 

I love the Hard Case Crime books. This one was great. 

Charlie Swift is out to get revenge for the murder of his boss, Stan, and their crew by a rival, Beggar. He meets some interesting characters along the way and it had a happy-ish ending for a book of this nature. I watched the movie, too, and it was really good (even if Pierce Bronson is too old to play Charlie--in the book he's 40). They changed a lot, but I still enjoyed it. 

A friend at work who rarely reads was reading this one. The books he's recommended have been pretty good, though, so I gave this one a try. It wasn't bad, but it hit a little too close to home sometimes. 

Tyler (not his real name) and his two brothers grew up with an alcoholic, abusive father. When his dad was sober, he was great and Tyler loved hanging out with him. But things come to a head one Christmas Eve when his dad nearly beats his mom to death and goes to prison. Tyler was able to pull himself up out of this bad situation, join the Air Force, and later have a stable career and get married. So many kids in situations like his end up addicts themselves, so it was great to hear that he escaped it. 

And finally, Bentley Little's latest, "Behind". I really wanted to like it. Little has been on and off over the years, and this one was definitely off. Super disappointing. Just very repetitive and boring. 

Alex sees a house behind his house one day, and it brings back a flood of bad memories about his childhood. He also saw a house behind his house back when he was a kid, and not long after that his parents disappeared, never to be heard from again. 

Throughout the book, the main characters kept saying they didn't know how it was going to end, and I felt like Little felt the same way. So he just ended it. It wasn't ambiguous or anything like that, just "I'm tired of writing it, so it's over, the end". 

Book of Lost Names

 

One of the fun things about being a librarian is when you tell people, they will often ask if you've read their favorite book. I started having a lot of unusual foot pain recently, and after all my home remedies didn't work I went to see a podiatrist. When I told her I'm a librarian, she asked if I had read "The Book of Lost Names". I admitted that although I had heard of it, I had not read it and she gushed about it. So I read it.

I really liked it. Eva and her parents are Polish Jews living in Paris. When it falls to the Nazis, her father is arrested but Eva and her mother manage to escape and head towards Switzerland. They don't quite make it, but they do land in a little town in the mountains and Eva discovers she had a talent for forging the stamps on documents. She joins an underground ring of document forgers and starts creating new identities for Jewish children to help them escape the Germans. Eva doesn't want these children's identities to be forgotten so she and her fellow forger, Remy, create a code in a book kept in the library where they work. 

It was very engaging, I had a hard time putting it down. I really liked Harmel's writing style.  

Beyond the Throne

 

The actors on "Game of Thrones" did such a terrific job, especially in the last season with the absolutely awful material they were given to work with. 

Kristian Nairn, who played Hodor (HODOR!!) was such a great actor who brought a challenging character to life. Hodor only spoke one word, "hodor", over and over again, and yet Nairn was able to convey his sweetness and loyalty. 

Nairn himself is an interesting person. He grew up in Ireland, raised by a single mom. He worked (and actually continues to work) as a popular DJ. I enjoyed hearing his story and his experiences working on the show. 

Why We Love Football; Dark Tide

 

Posnanski counts down the top 100 moments in football history. He had a lot of good ones on here, ones I fondly remembered. He did, however, miss the first Lambeau leap, and I think that should have been included. Of course it's impossible to include everything. Football is full of amazing moments. There are definitely more than 100 reasons to love it. 

On that note...GO PACK GO!! 😊

"Dark Tide" was not what I was expecting, and yet I really couldn't put it down. It was very well written and compelling. 

Edna Cowell is Ted Bundy's cousin. They were close when they were children, Ted being the same age as Edna's older brother. When Ted was arrested for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of the young women that had gone missing around their Washington homes, Edna and her family were sure it was some horrible mistake. Their Ted would never do anything like that. 

It was hard for her to come to terms with the truth. I appreciated hearing about the experience from a family member, we don't normally hear their side of things. Even though we disagree about the death penalty, I found her story engaging. 

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen

 

"Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen" was pretty good. Set during WWII, the Hollywood Canteen was a place where studio stars and workers volunteered their time to entertain servicemen. 

Annie Laurence is a writer who's new to Hollywood. She followed her former boyfriend and girlfriend out after they left New York for a contract at MGM. Obviously they had to keep their relationship hush hush, but critic Fiona Farris reviewed the last play that Annie wrote and made a joke about her sleeping with both the main stars. Fiona is killed one night at the canteen and Annie is a suspect, along with the rest of the group of friends known as the Ambassador's Club. 

It was a good mystery, I didn't see the ending coming (but then again, I rarely do). I liked the historical element of it, too. Reading about old Hollywood, even in fiction, is usually fun. 

IT

 

I haven't reread "IT" in ages. It was just as engaging as I remembered. 

Seven kids, who call themselves the "losers", come together in Derry, Maine, during the summer of 1958. Bill, Richie, Eddie, Ben, Beverly, Mike, and Stan are the kids who are always being picked on by the bullies: Bill stutters, Richie wears glasses, Eddie has asthma, Ben is overweight, Beverly is poor, Mike is Black, and Stan is Jewish. Henry Bowers and his gang torments them, but there's something much worse going on in Derry. Kids are being brutally murdered, including Bill's younger brother, George. And the losers know what is doing it: an evil entity they call "IT". They go after IT and fight it. The murders stop, and the losers part ways. 

Twenty-seven years later, IT is back and the losers who made a vow to return if IT wasn't really dead are being called home to once again face off against the eternal evil. 

This was the first Stephen King book I read. I was thirteen. It had a very lasting impression on me, and I'm still amazed at what an awesome storyteller King is when he's good. This is one of the great ones.