July - How many...?

[daverob]

Two for me:

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The history of a fictional band in 70s Southern California. Think Fleetwood Mac. Good read.

Catalina by Liska Jacobs. Noir story about a woman who returns to visit her friends in Los Angeles after losing her job in New York. Dark and well-written, I loved this book. In a lot of noir stories, we meet characters who are far down their respective roads and quickly running out of choices. This book is sort of like the story that comes before a character gets to that point.

[Martin]

Been on a bit of a Stephen King re-read kick lately and this month it translated into re-reading other others as well.

11 Reads for July and 8 are re-reads. Got on a kick and had to ride it out:

A Long December by Richard Chizmar:
I read this one a few years ago when the limited first came out. This was an audible re-read. Nearly every story in this book packs an emotional punch. Remains one of my favorite collections.
Five Stars

Joyland by Stephen King:
I have read this story several times. I love stories that feel like you are observing people live their lives and this story has that feel for me.
Five Stars

Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke:
Pure Horror! Mama in bed and the re-birth scenes are what get mentioned the most when people talk about this story. The story is so much more than that though. For me it is a near perfect horror novel. I continue to hope for a sequel and if done right a movie!
Five Stars

Carrie by Stephen King:
It has probably been near 40 years since I read this so I decided on an audible re-read with Sissy Spacek narrating. This is still one of the top ‘first’ novels I have read from any author. I was concerned that having Spacek narrate would distract me since she played Carrie and the story is not told from Carrie’s perspective but I enjoyed her narration.
Four Stars

Screwball by Simon Rich:
This was an audible original that is about Babe Ruth’s year in the minors. I found myself wishing the story would end through about 75% of the story. By the end I realized that I had enjoyed it enough to give it three stars. I can’t saw I would recommend it though.
Three Stars

Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World by Scott McCormick:
This was another audible original. It takes a light hearted approach to telling stories of rivals throughout history. I am not sure about how true he stays to the story. I knew enough about the Dassler brothers to understand that elements of the story about Adidas and Puma were true. On the other hand in the Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr section he states known facts and then talks about the possibility of Hamilton becoming President which left me confused.
Three Stars

Blood and Smoke by Stephen King:
“This is the audio set that first released the stories “In the Death Room”, “1408” and “Lunch at the Gotham Café”. Each story has a shared element of someone who has quit smoking and then is placed in a stressful situation. I have listened to this audio several times and read the stories in print. I love the audio and each of the stories are worth the price of admission!
Five Stars

Misery by Stephen King:
This is another one that I have not read in decades. My memories were much more shaped by the movie than the book. I new the movie had changed the ‘hobbling’ scene but had forgotten that Annie only took the ax to one foot. I also forgot about the punishment for complaining about the typewriter. I think I read this before I read The Shining so I failed to catch all the references to that story as well. Actually, I had forgotten many details.
Five Stars

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi:
I only discovered Mr. Scalzi a few years ago and I have read every novel he has published except one and for some strange reason I am saving that one. Well I wanted a Scalzi fix so I looked at my audible library for something I would enjoy re-reading. I noticed that The Dispatcher was narrated by Zachary Quinto. He plays Charlie Manx in NOS4A2 and has received a lot of criticism for his ‘old man’ voice. This is a criticism I do not share. I decided to give this another listen and found I still love it and Mr. Quinto does a fantastic job as a narrator.
Five Stars

Drunken Fireworks by Stephen King:
For some reason I went on a re-read kick this month. This is another one that originally came out as an audio book. Although I have read the story in print, my favorite version is the audio.
Five Stars

Rip-Off Edited by Gardner Dozois:
I have had my eye on this Audible original for a while. It caught my attention because it contains a John Scalzi story. The concept intrigued me. Write a story using the opening line from a classic novel. Although I love Scalzi’s writing I am not a big Fantasy Sci-Fi fan. This book was a bit to heavy in the fantasy realm for my taste. I did not hate any of the stories and actually liked some of them. Overall the book was just OK.
Three Stars

[RonClinton]

Always so happy to see Cornell Woolrich continuing to be enjoyed. :-)

I wonder if you’d like *his* short stories...?

[JasonUK]

Here are my 4 books for last month.

Cornell Woolrich - The Bride Wore Black (8/10) I assumed this was going to be a standard femme fatale story, but while it does centre around a beautiful woman there is no sexual element here, instead she is stone cold killer out for revenge. There are no less than 4 surprise twists in the final couple of chapters. Superb crime novel.

John Everson - The 13th (7/10) Tremendous first half about women being abducted and taken to a local asylum for unknown reasons. The second half, in the asylum, is drawn out a little too much to sustain the tension but the downbeat ending was a nice touch.

Dean Koontz - The Night Window (7/10) The 5th and final book in the Jane Hawk series. Koontz brings the story to a satisfying climax in this multi-threaded thriller. Hopefully his next stand-alone novel will continue this strong return to form after his years of self-indulgent navel-gazing.

Richard Chizmar - The Vault (3/10) I've said before I'm not much of a fan of short stories and I only found a couple in this collection that I enjoyed. The rest were readable enough but too bland for my taste.