Category: Reviews

I haven’t blogged in over a week. Been failing to get to the end of my check list. I just finished reading Finding Fish, by Antwone Fisher, so here’s my review..

Finding Fish is nonfiction. Antwone Fisher tells the story of his life as a foster child in Cleveland. From a very young age and until his late teens, Antwone was fostered by a family that abused him and two other foster children in their care.

It’s a very emotional story. It brought tears to my eyes. Thank God for the United States Navy. The Navy not only gave Antwone a home when he’d finally left his foster parents, the Navy also helped him recover.

While reading Melissa J. Lytton‘s Echoes of a Dream, I kept thinking that the prose rolls like it does in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress. They’re completely different stories; Mosley’s is a noir set in 1948 Los Angeles and Lytton’s is a science fiction set in the future. But I feel the writing is similiar in that it just takes you in. I don’t think “grabbed me and held me” is the right way to describe it. It’s more like you’re comfortably settled into the story and it’s a smooth ride.

Eric Hudd is a drug addict, though he has been clean for some time now. He has a job and his own place, and it seems his life is on a better path. But something is wrong. When Hudd accidentally kills a man, he’s not sure it really happened or not. Soon he finds out that the factory near the building he lives in has something going on that tampers with people’s dreams and realities. Hudd decides it needs to stop.

Lytton did an outstanding job creating this novel. Her character development and world building skills are excellent, and she has a keen sense of story.

So, I finished and reviewed Joe Hill‘s Heart-Shaped Box a few weeks ago. I believe Heart-Shaped Box is the first novel Hill published. Yesterday, I finished Hill’s second novel, Horns.

Heart-Shaped Box and Horns are two completely different stories, but both were deep in music. Judas Coyne, the rock star who bled all over the pages in Heart-Shaped Box is criticized by a character in Horns. I guess not everyone is impressed with Jude’s music.

I like when writers pull that trick, mention a character from a completely different, unconnected story. It makes that character feel more real, alive, and it makes me feel like I’m being reminded of an old friend.

Okay, so… Horns. It’s a rather strange story, dipped in dark fantasy. Ig Perrish wakes up after a night of drunken raging and discovers he has grown horns. Now everyone is telling him their darkest secrets. Because of this, Ig starts to hear the truth of what happened to his girlfriend, Merrin, a year ago.

As usual, a good read and entertaining, even though the story touches on a highly sensitive subject. Hill showed very clearly how brutal and ugly rape is. I was uncomfortable as I read the scene where it happened.

It’s hard to read Joe Hill‘s Heart-Shaped Box without thinking about the Nirvana song with the same name, but I suspect that’s what Hill intended. This book mentions several rock stars and bands. Hell, the lead character’s dogs are named after Bon Scott and Angus Young. It’s a horror novel that pays homage to rock ‘n’ roll.

Heart-Shaped Box is the first Joe Hill book I’ve read. I have to say, Joe Hill is just as talented as his dad. Their styles are pretty similar, a lot of free flowing wordage that keeps the reader engaged.

Jude Coyne is a rock star, though he hasn’t recorded anything in the last few years. He’s living in a farmhouse in New York with his girlfriend, Georgia.

Jude has a dark hobby. He collects occult items, like a skull, a noose that was used to hang a man, a witch’s signed confession, things like that. When Danny. Jude’s assistant, tells him that someone is selling a ghost online, Jude decides to buy it even though he thinks it’s a joke.

But the ghost arrives. Jude finds out that the ghost is the stepfather of his former girlfriend. The ghost wants Jude dead and anyone who tries to help him.

Okay, I was out in my hunting shack when I finished reading Gunny’s Rules: How to Get Squared Away Like a Marine, by R. Lee Ermey.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought the writing was good. I agree with much of what he said,. Some of it was what I had been thinking all along, even some of the practices he suggests are things I had already been doing.

Other things he said gave me ideas on how to improve myself. But there were also things that I strongly disagree with and his attitude toward certain people rubbed me the wrong way. I saw holes in a couple of his arguments too.

So, I guess if you read this book, some things might be useful to you, other things might not be.

Chris Gerrib speaks my language when it comes to pirates and action-packed science fiction adventure novels. I remember Pirates of Mars (Book 2 of the Pirates series) and how much I enjoyed it. Last night I finished reading The Mars Run (Book 1) and it was fun.

Janet Pilgrim wanted to go to college after graduating high school. She had her sights on universities that were stepping stones to real careers. She believed everything was in place for her to go, but then her dad lost her college funds in another one of his get-rich-quick schemes.

Now Janet has no money for college and feels her life plan is postponed, but she is determined to get things back on track. While out and about, Janet comes across an ad for a space program. She decides to check it out and soon finds herself enlisting for a mission to Mars.

But Mars is a new frontier and sparsely  populated, which means the law is not much on Mars. When the ship is captured by pirates, Janet is put through harsh trials, but she does what she can to survive.

I’ll put The Night Watch (Book 3) on my to-read list, but I might reread Pirates of Mars first, just to get the series in order.