Cannonball Read IV: Book #52/52Published: 1946Pages: 222Genre: Nonfiction
Dr. Nyiszli was a Jewish doctor who was picked to assist Dr. Mengele in the Auschwitz death camp during WWII. This wasn't an easy book to read, as with any Holocaust book. It still astounds me that something so awful happened a mere 70 years ago.
I actually liked the fact that Dr. Nyiszli focused more on the day-to-day activities in the camp rather than the grisly experiments that Dr. Mengele has become known for. The experiments are mentioned a few times, but Dr. Nyiszli mostly performed autopsies for Dr. Mengele and didn't actually assist with any experimentation.
Again, not an easy read, but a good look at Auschwitz from a slightly different perspective.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #51/52Published: 2012Pages: 568Genre: Post-apocalyptic/Horror
*First of all, I'm going to apologize for the brevity of my last two book reviews. It's a really busy time of year and I just need to get these written before Jan 1. for Cannonball read.*
The Passage was actually one of my favorite books that I read last year. It had a few downfalls, but overall I really enjoyed it. The Twelve is the second book in a soon-to-be trilogy and it didn't disappoint.
I was a little worried because The Passage was so intricate and had a large group of characters that I had a hard time following at times. I like to read a book series all at once otherwise I tend to forget plot lines and characters. The most genius thing in this book was the prologue that summed up everything that happened in the first book. I probably would have been a lot more lost without it.
The Twelve has some characters from the first book but also quite a few new characters. I kind of liked that because it almost felt like just another book in the same post-apocalyptic setting instead of a straight sequel.
My only complaint is the same as with The Passage: I had a hard time getting a grasp on some of the characters because there were just TOO many to try and differentiate them all. However, this book was a little shorter than The Passage, which was a good thing. The Passage had a little too much fluff in the middle and it dragged. This book didn't drag at all and I couldn't put it down. Even when I forgot who certain characters were or what they had done, the plot kept my attention and kept me reading.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #50/52Published: 2012Pages: 328Genre: Nonfiction
This book is supposedly a "fictionalized account of a true story", but is listed on Goodreads as nonfiction so I'm not sure EXACTLY what that means, but nonetheless, it's a compelling novel about child abuse. Tuesday (named after actress Tuesday Weld) endures horrific physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her mother after the death of her older sister. Her sister had polio and died after complications from the Hong Kong flu.
Soon after her sister's death, Tuesday's mother receives a brain injury after a fall down the stairs. She's never the same after that and blames Tuesday for killing her other daughter. Tuesday has a few younger brothers who are treated normally, so she just assumes that her mother hates her. She is always being "punished", but never knows what she did to be in trouble. The physical abuse is horrific, but the mental abuse is awful as well. She is forced to stand facing the wall in the hallway whenever she is home. She is usually not fed dinner and if she is, her mother makes these disgusting concoctions to make her eat. She is not allowed to bathe and has to wear old, too small clothes to school so she gets made fun of.
The most disgusting thing? Tuesday tells her friend in Jr. High and ends up running away. Social services makes a house call and completely believes her parents when they say everything is okay. No follow-up calls, just a few months with a counselor who apparently doesn't do any good. Her father is a spineless coward to tries to sneak Tuesday food and sends her to his mother's house every summer to get away, but ultimately he defends his wife.
I did like the closure at the end with Tuesday's mom and dad, but I would have liked to see what her adult brothers thought of the abuse she endured as a child. They were treated normally while their sister was abused. Did they never try and intervene? Were they scared? Did they think it was normal because they were younger and grew up like that?
This book was horrible and hard to read at times, but very interesting. I just wish I knew how much was actually based on the true story. I'd be pretty disappointed to find out that a bunch of things were sensationalized for the sake of a good story.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #49/52Published: 1962Pages: 256Genre: Japanese Literature
I picked this book up because it sounded really weird. A man named Niki is out collecting insects for his bug collection when he is kidnapped in this weird village near the sea. The sand dunes will destroy the city unless the inhabitants spend hours a day digging sand out from around their houses. This causes all of the houses to be inside of large holes in the sand that are impossible to escape from. Niki is left inside of one with a woman to help her dig the sand. People from above drop off supplies and water, so Niki and the woman are completely dependent on them to live. If they don't dig, they don't get supplies or water.
Supposedly this book has some deep existentialism meaning to it, but I read it purely for entertainment value. It's a very short book, so it moved quickly. There's only so much you can write about being trapped in a sand pit, so the length was probably just about right.
Mostly this book just made me want to take a shower. Abe is great at describing how disgusting it must be to live eternally covered in a film of sand. Worth it for a quick read if you're into kind of weird books.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #48/52Published: 1960Pages: 323Genre: Classic
This book is on ALL the must-read classics lists, so I figured I should finally read it. Well...this is why I don't like to read classics. It wasn't a bad book -- in fact, it was beautifully written -- but I was just BORED for most of it.
First of all, the plot (I actually went into this book fairly blind as to the plot. I know this book is a huge classic, but I never really knew what it was about.): It mostly follows two kids, Scout and Jem. They're a brother/sister duo in 1930s Alabama who run into some obstacles when their lawyer father, Atticus, decides to defend a black man who is accused of raping a white woman.
My favorite thing about this book was the characters. The characters were great and well-written. I loved Scout and how she was a tomboy who wore pants instead of dresses. I loved Atticus and how he saw everyone as people instead of just a skin color. And Calpurnia, their cook, who was an important part of their family.
I also really enjoyed the actual trial portion of the book. Even though I could guess how it was going to end, I was rooting hard for Atticus. The town's backlash against him and his children was awful to read, but his refusal to stoop to their level was nothing short of admirable.
However, the trial portion was a fairly short part of the book that doesn't start until at least halfway in (maybe further). The first half of the book was very slow. I get they it was probably to set up characters, but nothing really happens. I was trying to figure out when some sort of plot was going to start besides the summer antics of some bored kids.
It also took me a little while to figure all of the characters out. At first, I thought Calpurnia was Jem and Scout's step-mother. I also had a hard time remembering that Scout was the girl and Jem was the boy. They also kept referring to their father as "Atticus" rather than "Dad", so that was a little confusing at first too. But there is plenty of time to figure characters out before anything really happens.
I did like the book, even if mostly for the characters and the trial portion. Definitely worth reading at least once in your lifetime, but probably won't be heading onto my re-read list anytime soon.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #47/52Published: 1992Pages: 292Genre: Horror
I picked up this horribly cheesy novel at the used bookstore for $1. It's not worth even that probably. I actually forgot I even read this until I was looking through my Goodreads account (add me!) and realized I never wrote my CBR review for it.
It was a pretty forgettable novel, so forgive me if this review is somewhat vague. The plot follows a school teacher who gets a really good paying job to teach a set of conjoined twins. The twins (named Alpha and Beta...seriously) are locked up in a lab and have never been outside their small apartment in there. They're pretty much treated like lab rats.
What mainly stuck out to me is how far we've come in 20 years. This book treats the conjoined twins like they are so freakish that they could never been seen out in public. They are kept a huge secret. Now, conjoined twins can get their own reality show in TLC (See Abby & Brittany). I was sort of appalled at how these twins were treated in the book.
Anyways, there is some weird stuff involving mind control with one of the twins and people die...blah blah. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill cheesy horror novel. Worth it for a super quick read if you're into that sort of thing (which I obviously am for some reason).
Cannonball Read IV: Book #46/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 448
Genre: Humor
Sigh. I don't even know where to start with this one. I read Tucker Max's first book when I was in college (roughly 5 years ago...eek!) and thought it was hilarious. The guy was an asshole, no doubt, but he owned it at least. The second book was okay. Funny, but it lost some the charm of the first book. This third book? Completely lost any charm that may have ever existed.
It was basically the same thing as the first two books, only instead of listening to your roommate tell their drunk stories from last weekend, you're listening to the 35-year-old tell drunk stories from his "glory days" ten years ago. At this point he's already told his best stories and he's grasping for anything he may have left untold.
The only redeeming parts of this book were Tucker's friends. They were always my favorite part of all of his books (especially Slingblade). I did enjoy the stories about them. I can't say I hated this book, just that it was a little disappointing. I'm not sure if that's due to Tucker growing up or due to me growing out of his stories and not really caring about anyone's drunk exploits anymore.
This is supposedly Max's last book of this sort. I'm kind of interested in what he writes next because it's obvious that he's very intelligent and a decent writer. I just hope it's a little less narcissistic.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #45/52
Published: 1910
Pages: 331
Genre: Classic
I decided that I need to read more classic novels. I read a ton, but have barely read any of the books most people consider classics. I went with The Secret Garden as my first choice because I remember reading it when I was little and really liking it. I also liked the movie that came out sometime in the early/mid 90's.
The premise is probably familiar to most people: Mary is a spoiled English child who lives in India with her wealthy family until she is orphaned after a plague strikes the area. She is shipped off to England to live in her uncle's gigantic mansion. I remember always wanted to have a mansion like that to explore. I kind of still do. Anyways, Mary is pretty much left on her own all day and she starts getting nosy. First, she discovers a locked garden that she is told is forbidden because it was her Aunt's, who had passed away years ago. Then she discovers that she has a cousin who is kept secret and bedridden due to a mysterious illness that he may or may not even have.
I was surprised at how much I actually remembered about this book. I was almost bored at times because I knew exactly what was going to happen next. However, the story still holds up well. Mary is unlikeable, but you can't help but feel a little sorry for her since she doesn't know any better. She grows throughout the story and I loved her stubborn interactions with her equally (or possibly more) spoiled cousin.
Overall, it's definitely a classic that should be read at least once.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #44/52Published: 1998Pages: 736Genre: Crime/Thriller
A friend recommended this book to me years ago, but I never got around to picking it up. I found it in a used book store a few weeks ago and decided to give it a try.
The premise is pretty simple for such a long book: A white woman (Brenda) wanders into an emergency room with bloody hands saying that she was carjacked by a black man in a mostly black neighborhood. Then she tells the cops that her four-year-old son was in the back of the car. This sets off a long string of events that causes a huge racial conflict between the black neighborhood (Dempsey) and the neighboring white town (Gannon) that Brenda lives in (and her brother is a cop in).
Lorenzo Council is the Dempsey cop that is working on her case. He starts a search for the little boy while trying to get more information out of a near comatose Brenda. Something about her is "off", but he can't quite figure out what it is.
I thought that Freedomland was a little long. Some parts when off on tangents that went for pages and pages. I mean we find out what happened to the little boy and there's still TWO HUNDRED more pages! I thought for sure that meant it was just a red herring, but nope. Just 200 more pages. It definitely could have been condensed.
However, I did watch the movie they made based off the book that came out in 2006 with Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson. It wasn't nearly as good. When the storyline was condensed like it was for the movie, it's very bland. You don't get the same feel for the characters and you don't get the creeping dread that builds up while reading the novel. So, in that sense I understand the length of the novel a little better. It seems slow at times WHILE you're reading, but after you finish you realize it was worth it.
Oh, and I never did get why the title is "Freedomland". The abandoned theme park they visit is called "Freedomtown". There is a passing reference to Freedomtown being based off a larger theme park in New York called Freedomland, but otherwise it is never mentioned nor visited (the book takes place in New Jersey).
Cannonball Read IV: Book #43/52Published: 2000Pages: 298Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
I was a waitress in college and I LOVED it. It's such a hard job, but so satisfying to walk away every night with a wad of cash. I've always thought the world would be a little bit of a better place if every person had to spend six months of their life as a waiter or waitress. You literally learn to deal with every type of person whether as a customer or as a co-worker.
I picked up this book at a used bookstore and was hoping it was better than the behind-the-scenes book I read last year about the cruise ship waiter. It was okay, but focused more on the writer's personal life than his actual job. Waiting was the waitressing memoir I'd been looking for.
Debra has basically been a waitress at various places her entire life. She has a college degree, but chooses to be a waitress instead. That may seem strange to some, but I can understand her. I have a college degree, but I have thought about going back to waitressing sometimes. There really is no other job like it. This book follows Debra's various waitressing jobs starting when she was a teenager. I loved her writing - she's funny and never goes off on unrelated tangents for too long like some memoirs. She shares stores about customers as well as co-workers and what goes on behind the scenes. It's a very well-rounded view of working in a restaurant.
Highly recommended if you have ever worked in the restaurant industry. If you haven't -- well, read at your own risk. Sometimes it's best not to know what goes on after hours or back in the kitchen.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #42/52
Published: 2009
Pages: 583
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian
I did not care for this book. There's a fine line between interesting plot twists and "WTF did I just read??". The storyline seems simple at first: In a small Californian town, suddenly everyone over the age of fifteen disappears. Sounds cool, right? Then it starts to seem like a YA version of Stephen King's Under the Dome (which I really liked) when the kids figure out that there is a weird barrier around the town. Okay...still not too bad.
THEN...the kids start developing weird powers. I can also deal with that, although I was expecting more of a straight-forward dystopian novel.
But then the wolves start talking. We have snakes that fly. Some weird entity called "the Darkness" that lives in an old mineshaft. WHAT. THE. EFF? It just got too freaking weird for me. Not to mention the most anti-climactic ending ever. Most of the book was leading up to this big confrontation between the "good" kid and the "bad" kid (who were twins that were separated at birth by the way). Then they BARELY fight and just kind of walk away from each other.
I also didn't care for the characters. I thought they were too cliche (and I wanted to murder the stupid sidekick surfer friend who attached the word "brah" to the end of every sentence). The good guy (Sam) was TOO good and the bad kid (Caine) was too maniacal to even believe (remember, he's FOURTEEN). Everyone was very one-note. The super smart girl, the autistic kid, etc. -- that is basically their entire personality.
I will NOT be reading the rest of this series unless I feel that I deserve some sort of punishment.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #41/52Published: 2012Pages: 608Genre: Young Adult
Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite YA writers. She doesn't dumb her books down like some YA novels and although she knows how to bring the drama, there is still a sense of realism with these kids and their lives.
Tilt is a companion novel to Hopkins' previous novel, Triangles. Triangles was her first adult novel that was published last year. Tilt reverts back to her normal teenage characters, but this time they're the children of the main characters in Triangles.
This book mainly follows three teens:
Mikayla: A senior who finds out she's pregnant with her jerk boyfriend's baby.
Shane: A gay teen with a tumultuous home life. His 4-year-old sister is dying from a disease she was born with and his parents marriage is on the rocks. Now they are dealing with Shane coming out and his HIV-positive boyfriend.
Harley: A younger teen who becomes infatuated with her older soon-to-be step-brother.
Overall, I liked this book. Some of it seemed a little redundant because it's pretty much the same storyline as Triangles, but from the perspective of the kids. It's different enough to not be boring, but there aren't any huge surprises because most of the bigger things were spoiled if you'd read the companion novel. It definitely could be read as a stand-alone book though.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #40/52Published: 2001Pages: 448Genre: Horror
I can't believe I'm already on book 40 for this year! I'm on much better track than last year when I had to read about 10 books in December to get caught up.
So, The Association is a schlocky little horror novel. I was actually surprised to see that it was published in 2001 because it just screams of cheesy 80's horror. I've read one or two of Bentley Little's books before, so luckily I wasn't expecting a masterpiece.
The plot is pretty simple: a couple moves into a gated community in Utah called Bonita Vista and everything is awesome until the homeowner's association keeps getting increasingly bothersome with their crazy rules. I decided to read this book because I had never really heard of homeowner's associations growing up because I lived out in the country. Now that I live in southern California, I get a kick out seeing some of the stupid rules they come up in the HOA (one place we lived wouldn't let you put up curtains unless the backs of them were white). Fortunately, those rules seem perfectly normal compared to the HOA in this book.
At first, Barry and Maureen are just mildly annoyed by some of the rules (or C, C, & R's, as the HOA in the book calls them). No pets of any kind, no working out of the house (Barry is a writer, so he has to rent an office in town), things like that. They become friends with their neighbors who also aren't too keen on the HOA rules.
Eventually the rules just become insane. Only married couples allowed to live together. No one is allowed to have kids. No residents or visiters that are not Caucasian. People who break the rules or defy the association seem to have a habit of disappearing or dying suddenly.
Like I said, it's a cheesy horror novel. Nothing more, nothing less.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #39/52Published: 2009Pages: 272Genre: Nonfiction
I grew up in a super small town out in the country where currently a meth lab is busted approximately every few weeks. It's sad. I knew people who did meth and I knew people who sold meth. According to this book, when I was in high school was the beginning of the meth epidemic across small town America. It seems to have gotten much worse since I left my hometown eight years ago.
Methland follows the meth problem in the small town of Oelwein, Iowa. Reding paints a bleak picture of this town during the downturn in the economy: drug use is on the rise and employment opportunities continue to diminish. The town is literally on the verge of collapse.
I was hoping to get a background of the drug from this book and I thought the book did a good job of explaining how meth became such a drug of choice for the working class American. I always wondered why it seemed to be much more of a problem in smaller towns rather than large cities. It's actually pretty simple: Anyone can make meth. Literally. Apparently you can make it on your bicycle. You can have a meth lab in a car, a basement, or a hotel bathroom -- even a Walmart (not kidding. I read this in the news a while back. Some lady was cooking meth on a Walmart shelf).
However, the rest of the book falls short. It was actually a little boring in some places as the author gives way too many pages to characters that don't really need it. Such as the local town doctor. I understand that a small town doctor probably has some good insight on the town drug problem, but does he really need 50 pages talking about his family and personal demons? I didn't exactly pick up this book to read about an alcoholic small-town doctor and his issues.
It's a pretty short book, so if you're interested in the history of meth it might be worth a read. Just skim through the more boring parts.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #38/52
Published: 2003
Pages: 617
Genre: Horror/Dystopian
I first read this book back in college. I know now it's getting a little more press due to the Hunger Games comparisons. I actually first picked up Hunger Games the week it was released back in 2008 because I read that it was similar to Battle Royale. They do share a lot of similarities, but enough differences to make them totally different novels.
For instance, both novels take groups of teens and pit them against each other to the death. However, The Hunger Games picks a boy and a girl from each district. Battle Royale randomly picks a ninth grade class who has no idea they were chosen until they're already there. They pretend they're taking them on a school trip then gas them on the bus. I think it's a little more chilling that ALL of these students actually know each other and grew up together vs. HG's involving mostly strangers.
Both novels also provide weapons to the players, but they are distributed a little differently. Instead of HG free-for-all weapons and food in the cornucopia, BR hands out bags to each student as they leave. Each bag contains some sort of random weapon. However, it could be anything from a fork to a machine gun.
My favorite difference with Battle Royale is the collars. The students are fitted with thin, metal collars that are used as tracking devices. They also contain explosives that will detonate if the wearer tries to remove it or if they are found inside of a forbidden zone. Every few hours, a new zone on the island is "forbidden" and anyone in that section will be killed. If 24 hours goes by without a kill, everyone's collars will detonate and no one wins.
The novel mainly follows local "rockstar" Shuya (even though rock music is outlawed in their country). Shuya was raised in an orphange along with is best friend who is also on the island. Shuya joins up with Noriko early on and feels he must protect her since his best friend had a crush on her (remember, they're 15-year-olds). Noriko is also injured after being shot in the leg. Shuya and Noriko meet up with the mysterious loner Shogo and they all band together to try and overthrow the game.
I love this novel. I can't say weather I like more or less than HG because I really can't compare the two. BR is much more brutal and bloody. It does have some great characters and even love interests, but that's definitely an afterthought to the violence (which is probably more realistic in a situation like this).
With 42 characters it can be a little hard to keep track of everyone, especially with all of the unfamiliar Japanese names. I do like "students remaining" tally at the beginning of each chapter though. I also like that there is a "main" group of students we follow and get to know well, but chapters with other students are interspersed throughout the novel as well.
I don't think Battle Royale is for everyone who might have enjoyed The Hunger Games. However, if you wished HG was a little more brutal and a little less YA, go ahead and try it.
