LET'S TALK

okay so today is a slow day for me here at work. I only have one client and the staff member that I am working with is handling the group therapy today so I'm in the office doing some paperwork and trying to act busy. Now would be a good time for you book lovers out there to comment on a book I"ve posted so we can get a conversation going! Come on, I know you are out there :-)

SHAKE DOWN-JOEL GOLDMAN

Next up on our list of good reads is ''Shake Down". As I said in my formal review on www.frontstreetreviews.com, this was a good murder mystery. I really got into the characters, there were a lot of nice twists and turns that I did not expect and I was never really bored.
What makes this book stand out from most murder mystery plots is the fact that the main character is not allowed to work the case because his boss puts him on medical leave due to uncontrollable shakes that he is having. Instead of the book starting out with a murder, then you get to know the FBI characters and police, then off you go, this book adds a little more spice to it.
I do wish that when the doctors figure out why it is he is shaking, that they make it part of the story more because this is something that you deal with the entire time, then it seems like just a few paragraphs are dedictated to explaining what it is.
I also thought the ending could have used another 20 or so pages. We wait soooo long to finally figure out all the answers to our questions, and then feel a little short changed. Now don't get me wrong, the book was great, and I did like how it ended, I just wish it was explained a little more. Maybe the author is planning on writing a series to this book? If so, that would be fine by me! I'd go out and buy it.
So for your murder/mystery fans out there, this is one you don't want to miss. It is just enough out of the ordinary to make it worth the trip to go out and buy!

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!!!!

allrighty! time is up and it's time to choose a winner!!!!

I'd like to congratulate the winner of my first ever book give away......drum roll please.....WINDYCINDY!!!!!

Congrats!! I"ll be contacting the author and will have him send you the book directly! I hope you enjoy the book and I hope after you are done reading it you will visit my blog again and let me know what you liked about it! :-)

STILL A LITTLE MORE TIME

Due to the fact that i'm at work all day today, the free book contest will not be ending this morning, but instead will be ending this evening! Make sure you send me a message! You don't have much time! Good luck :-)

huffin and puffin it at the gym

okay so usually i blog on here about books i read, but we're gonna step outside the box for a minute. i just got back from the gym and daaaamn I'm tired. i could easily shower, then curl into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. i thought working out was supposed to give you all this extra energy and boost your day! well I'm calling their bluff cuz i think that's buulllllll crapppp.

i also blame the gym on why I'm not posting as many book blurps on here as i should. i work out to stay healthy, but then it makes me tired, so my creativity gets sapped in the process. it's a lose lose situation here folks!

okay, off to the shower, then I'll get some food so try and steal back some of that energy that the gym gods have so rudely taken..i may even post another book on here today!

don't forget about the contest for the book "An Embarrassment of Riches"!!! I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow :-) we've already got some great entries!

STILL ALICE-LISA GENOVA

First off, don't forget about the free contest book giveaway that I posted in my last entry. The winner will be announced FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY so you don't have much time to enter! :-)

This next book that I read was truly a sobering book. I did a review on it almost a month ago now. If you are interested in that, go to www.frontstreetreviews.com to check it out. As I mentioned in my review, this is the type of book, in my opinion, that would not be appropriate for people who have loved ones that have Alzheimer's disease. This book would just depress the crap out of you.

Alice is a woman who is in her early 50's. She is bright, intelligent, works as a prominent college, travels, wrote a book, teaches, etc. Her and her equally smart husband have three children together, ranging from college age to 30ish. Alice starts to realize that she is forgetting things more often, getting lost in places that she usually knows like the back of her hand, missing flights because she forget she had a plane to catch, etc. This leads her to eventually go to the doctor, who in turn runs a bunch of tests and confirms that she has Early on set Alzheimer's disease. This devastates her and her family.

I think you all can see where this story is leading. She declines, more and more. People with Early on set Alzheimer's decline more quickly than someone who gets it later in their life. In less than two years Alice doesn't even recognize her husband or children.

I felt so depressed and helpless and scared after reading this book. I was depressed because I cannot believe that we haven't found a cure for this terrible disease. I felt helpless because I cannot imagine having a loved one go through this and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it but sit around and wait for them to forget who you are. And I felt scared because I can think of nothing worse but to one day lose your mind like that. I would rather die. There is no quality of life if you don't know anyone around you or can't remember what you had for breakfast.

I think for someone who is looking for more information on the disease, this would be a good story to read. The other reason is simply for the fact that up to three dollars from the purchase of this book goes to the Alzheimer's Association. Every little bit helps!

Again, I loved the book, loved the characters, but damn it sobered me up.
If anyone out there is interested in reading it, or has read it, give me a shout out! I'd love to hear what you think!

WIN A FREE BOOK

Ladies and Gents!!! For those of you who like getting things for free (who the heck doesn't), there is a contest that my editor at http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/ is holding for this book that I just wrote a review for. The book is called "An Embarrassment of Riches", Gerald Hansen. This author was generous enough to be willing to give away five copies. front street will be giving away 4 of them, but I get the privilege of giving away one of them!

The book is set in Northern Ireland and is in very thick Derry Dialect. So yea, it is little hard to understand at first, but you find yourself easily understanding it after 10-15 pages. It's dark comedy. To put it in a quick nut shell it's about a woman who wins the Irish lottery and how she spends most of it on material things and how her family will stop at nothing to try and milk her for it, thinking she owes it to them. It's hilarious! Read more at www.frontstreetreviews.com . My review of it was just posted so you'll find it right on the main page.

HOW DO YOU WIN????

All you have to do is write me a comment here on my blog and give me a shout out telling me that you want this book! Leave me your email address and if you win I will contact you for your mailing address. Don't post your mailing address on the site because then everyone will see it. If you want more of a description of the book, go the front street.com and read my review!

Lastly, if you want to try and win one of the four copies at front street, just click on the contest link and follow the directions. it's easy as pie! This is a book you'll read again and again and it will stick out among the rest. Gerald Hansen is one talented man with a great sense of humor.

Let the blog comments roll! :-) I'll be announcing the winner on Friday! Good luck!

Willie's Dad-Stanley Williams

Again, it's been forever since I've posted...I've been in Florida, my Grandpop has been sick, life is in full swing! alas.

I think I've missed a few in between, but the next book I read and did a review for was called "Willie's Dad", by Stanley Williams. This is a childrens book. As always, my full review of it is at www.frontstreetreviews.com if you are interested! But by reading this, you get my uncensored opinion here! muahahah. just kidding. well, not really.

As I said in my review, this book is an innappropriate subject matter for children. In my opinion. i don't want to be harsh, and I hate giving out criticism to authors who work so damn hard on their books, but hey, I'm a reviewer, it's what i must do; respectfully.

I was watching CSPAN yesterday and it had Steven King, his wife Tabitha and there kid Owen (I think it was there kid!). A question they were asked was about what they think of criticism to their book. Suprisingly, Steven King stated that he HATED it when reviewers criticised his book. He said that it hurt, made him feel like crap, etc. It really put things into perspective. At the same time though, how are you gonna learn and be able to make your novels the best they can be without an honest review?

Back to the book! This short childrens book is about a young child who's father is in jail. We're not told why, but we are told that it is for a looooong time. This child visits his father in jail with his mother and her boyfriend. The father hugs the kid and tells him thathe loves him and doesn't want him to make the same mistakes he did, and that he wants this new man (mom's boyfriend), to be his new father. Then he walks away. Mom gets married to this new man. End of story.

Now I understand Stanley Williams' point about how some kids go through the situation of their father being in jail, but I think that maybe this should have been geared towards kids in like 5th-6th grade. a young, young child in my opinion will not understand this, and this book will definitly not put a smile on their young, innocent face. Books are meant to be read and enjoyed, not to sober you up and make you sad (this is for kids i'm talking).

So I have to give lots of kudos to Stanley Williams for taking this step, and I think he does have potential, and his writing isn't all that bad, but the subject matter is just way too innapropriate. I would never let my children read a book like that.

What do you think? would you read this to your children?

The Wentworths-Katie Arnoldi

hmmm what to say about this book....well, the word AMAZING comes to mind. Let me set this up for you as simple as I can. There's a rich family, you get inside of all of their heads, they are snobby, in denial about the outside world, they all have MAJOR faults, they don't accept outsiders, and then something huge and tragic happens in their little bubble and it kind of wakes them up and taps them in with the rest of the world. End of story.

For those of us who dislike rich people (and yes, I do, and it's probably because I'm jealous), you'll love this book. It's halrious and it almost makes you happy to be poor because you ever want to be like them; not for all the money in the world.

The mother is an anorexic lady who knows her husband is cheating on her with basically every woman under the age of 25 but chooses to close her eyes to it. Her youngest son is as gay as gay can get and instead she chooses to believe he's retarded so he can't help himself.

The father is big and fat and probably going to drop dead of a heart attack any time. He sleeps with young pretty little things and buys them lots of things to keep them happy.

The oldest son is a sadist and dates women that look only like his mother (uhhh gross) and he loves to spank them and to dabble in bondage. He is an ass hole.

The middle child is just like her mother. They even share clothing. She has a pill popping problem but is in denial about that. Her 15 year old daughter is a coke addict, and her little boy is a clepto.

The youngest kid is gay. gay gay gay. But everyone in the family doesn't see it. He is the only one in the family who is half normal. He knows he's gay, he knows they pretend not to see, he knows he does drugs to get away from his utterly fucked up family. He knows they are in denial about everything. He's in his 30's and lives with his parents still. sad.

the rest of my review is at www.frontstreetreviews.com if you want to check it out. this was a great book. it really makes you think that your problems and flaws really arn't that bad!