Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon

Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon
384 pages
Finished 10/30/07












The best thing the book had going for it was that it began at the end - Paige on trial, Kat dead, and Honey...sitting there. I like this format of books, and the anticipation is builds. How did Kat die? What really happened with Paige's euthanasia case?

Unfortunately, that is about all the book had going for it. Seriously. It was so random and far-fetched (the women all meet each other on their first day at the hospital and realize that none of them have a place to live, until one girl mentions she had looked at a 3 bedroom apartment that was way out of her price range, and hey! if they roomed together they could afford it. Really? Why would you even look at an apartment like that?) that I was practically groaning and rolling my eyes every 30 seconds.

And I thought I was annoyed with the ending of Lost and Found? This ending didn't even make sense. First of all, I saw it coming a mile away, and second of all..IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE. I won't spoil it, but come on. It would have never happened that way.

I give it one and a half stars.

The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger

The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger
299 pages
Finished 10/3/07












I thought this would be a pretty interesting book - I had vaguely heard the story when the movie came out, although I don't remember ever watching the movie.

The Perfect Storm is a great name for the book, as the book revolved around the storm that took out the Andrea Gail. It gave a lot of good information about fishing, but overall I wasn't impressed by the book, especially where it concerns the Andrea Gail. The synopsis on the back of the book annoyed me, because I thought the book was going to be entirely about the Andrea Gail, but it instead seemed to be about the storm itself, past storms, and other accidents that happened during the storm.

My biggest issue is that no one actually knows what happened on the boat/to the boat - it was never found. The author did make it clear that what he was writing was just a guess based on other boaters and their experiences, but it was pretty annoying to constantly read "Presumably" and "Probably." The Andrea Gail story was basically assumptions about what the Captain and crew decided and did while the ship was going down. I don't consider that nonfiction.
I give it one and a half stars.

Sept. 17 - 22

Whew, with these four books I am all caught up with the month of September.


The Book of Fred, by Abby Bardi
292 pages
Finished 9/17/07










I liked this book a lot. The characters were likable without being completely unrealistic, the book was well written (I especially liked that some of the narrative was written like a person would talk), and the book wasn't as predictable as I thought it would be. It was a nice story, and a great $1 find.

I gave it four stars.


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
235 pages
Finished 9/18/07










This was a fun, quirky little read. It is a very fast read. I was a little annoyed by the writing style (the jumping stories bothered me), but overall it was cute, and I liked the main character. I don't think I'll go out of my way to read the other books in the series, but if I see them at the local bookstore in the dollar bin, I'd definitely pick them up.

I gave it three stars.


Letters for Emily by Camron Wright
214 pages
Finished 9/18/07










I started out the first few chapters really liking the book (the storyline of the Grandpa with Alzheimer's was touching), until we actually got to the "letters for Emily." Then the book quickly turned into a James Patterson book - it was so much like Sam's Letters to Jennifer/Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas I wanted to gag. Way to cheesy and unrealistic for my liking. The ending was pretty out there, too. Blah.

I gave it one and a half stars.


From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
729 pages
Finished 9/22/07






I've read most of Dean Koontz's books, so I was excited to read this one, especially since I hadn't read one in awhile. It only let me down in one aspect - the summary written on the back of the book. I understand what they were going for, but I think it gave up WAY too much of the story. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through the book that some of the things mentioned started to happen, and that was a bit of a bummer. Otherwise, I really liked it.

I gave it four stars.

Sept. 15 & 16

I went on a major reading binge the next few days...here's the start...


How to Be Good by Nick Hornby
305 pages
Finished 9/15/07










Another Hornby book I found while looking for High Fidelity. These two books that I have read by Hornby are making me rethink my mission to find HF. Anyway, the main characters in this book were uninteresting and annoying, and I found that I didn't care for them at all. For the most part, I found myself skimming a lot of the book, hoping it would end. There were a couple parts that I actually that were very enjoyable, which gave me hope, but then it went back to it's wordiness. I had to force myself to finish it.

I gave it one and a half stars.


Mutation by Robin Cook
338 pages
Finished 9/16/07










I considered this book a nice, familiar read. You know what you are getting when you read a Robin Cook novel - they all seem to have the same formula, etc. It was a very fast read, and had a level of intrigue that I like - not so sure what's going to happen, but you know you'll get to it quickly.

I gave it three stars.


The Girl Who Talked to Ghosts by Dean C Young
322 pages
Finished 9/16/07






A true story about a family that purchases a house that was haunted. I found it at a used book store, and decided to buy it because it was only a dollar. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was somewhat local - it takes place in Wisconsin, and all of the towns mentioned I am familiar with.

The story itself leaves something to be desired. The editing on the book is pretty bad - there are so many mistakes (particularly with quotations and paragraph indentation). It was a fast read - I read it while watching the Packers beat the Giants.

I gave it two stars.