Good Reads & Listens Vol. 4
Novels:
The Wedding People; Alison Espach
Oh this story...first, read it, thank me later.
When this book came across my desk, it didn't even begin to peak my curiosity. I don't particularly care for weddings or wedding stories or wedding movies or the wedding industry. Except for Bridesmaids(Movie), which is awesome. But I digress. At one point, I decided to read the reviews on this book. My favorite site for this of course is Good Reads. Fellow book lovers, feel free to friend me over there.
The reviews were outstanding, so my interest was piqued and I gave the preview a listen. I learned that this was not a book about a wedding. It was so much different then that. No spoilers! This book is incredibly well written, funny, full of twists and turns you don't see coming. All the emotions, excellent humor, on point! You'll want to clear your schedule for the day to read it.
The wedding people has got to be one of the best novels that I have read in the last few years and it did not disappoint. If you only choose one book to read this year, I recommend The Wedding People 100%.
Stormy Weather; Carl Hiassen
A friend came over recently and we had so much fun talking about Carl Hiassen books. He gave me a gift card for...you guessed it, more Hiassen books! I'm never sad about that.
If you are a fan or even if you've never heard of him, there is a Netflix mini-series of his book Bad Monkey, staring Vince Vaughn and excellent AI generated opening credits. So even if you just watch the intro...you won't be disappointed.
Of course in his regular vein of writing, I can vouch for Stormy weather as a great “Beach Read”. Maybe if you're like me and in Oregon, we could call it a good “Rainy Day Read”. Or you can drive to the coast and read it on a combo storm watching trip. That tracks.
Another Hiassen book for the win!
The Man on the Mountain Top; Susan Trott(Revisit)
2nd time revisiting this book. This is an excellent book full of quality life lessons, incredibly well done. It's more like listening to a movie since it was specifically made for Audible and has a cast of familiar voices, namely Stanley Tucci. It's a great feel good, do good story and is just a good listen if you want to raise your vibration and well, feel good!
Non – Fiction:
Mailman; Stephen Starring Grant
This was a decent book. Not great because there were some key points of the story that didn't get wrapped up. Not in the leaving it open for a sequel cliff hanger way, but the I just forgot to bring my thesis statement full circle kink of way. Frustrating. So much so, because the bulk of the book was really good. I learned a ton about the US Postal Service and I didn't even know that that was on my list of things that I wanted to learn about.
Otherwise, the actual story line of the authors life seemed to be forgotten about in the wrap up.
Take away what you will, it's interesting and engaging and a great look into the often over looked US Postal Service.
Ranger Confidential; Andrea Lankford (Revisit)
I had forgotten how graphic this book is! And by graphic, I mean that it's a very real look into the life of a national park ranger and what goes on behind the scenes. Without giving to much away, this book is a solid read, hard to put down, fascinating and relatively bloody. This book will probably appeal most to those who are curious about life with the National Park Service, Search & Rescue folks or those just looking for a twist on your average adventure story. It's thoughtfully written and flows very well.
Devil's Teeth; Susan Casey
This is a cool book about Shark's as well as life on the Farland Islands. Specifically White Sharks that come to the island every Fall. The islands are located about 30miles off the coast of San Francisco. There are also some youtube clips that make nice accompaniments to the book to get real life visuals of the areas that she describes so well. This book leans more on the science of the sharks and life on the islands rather then a story/character arc which I found to be nice as well. Still very well written and engaging.