Billy Summers by Stephen King

Most of you know I love horror and Stephen King.  So of course I bought this off Amazon.

The author is listed as Stephen King, but this was more John Grisham than anything else!

This is a mob/mafia crime drama whodunit. I kept waiting for something supernatural, occult, or anything that would make it a King thriller.  

Remember my review of The Eyes of the Dragon?  That King's fans hated the fantasy so much he wrote Misery as a response?  That's how I felt!

Now, this wasn't bad.  It was actually a good book if mafia crime/ordered hits are your thing.  It's just not what I expected.  Billy Summers is a former marine who now works as a hired sniper hitman.  He's very good, excellent.  But now he wants to retire.  He befriends a young woman after she is sexually assaulted, and the two form an unlikely bond trying to solve who set Billy up on his last job.  

Definitely not what I was looking to read in choosing this book, but a worthwhile read.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

Bodies in the Library, a short story collection

A few weeks ago, my family and I attended Schemitzun, the New England Pow Wow hosted by the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, just outside Foxwoods.  It was an awesome experience.  The event is held every other year and should've been 2020. We last attended in 2016, so we were very excited to go!  Our plan was to eat after at Jealous Monk in Mystic Village.  So, OF COURSE, a stop at the new Cloak & Wand shop!

Now, let's be honest here, Cloak & Wand is a total tourist trap, down to the $12 "magic potions" that are just cream soda and hot chocolate. But when I saw this book, literally BODIES IN THE LIBRARY, I HAD to buy it.  

This is a short story collection of horror, set in old mansion, hotels, and libraries.  I LOVED IT.

Now for the bad news.  I WON'T be donating this.  Every Halloween I put out a "bookcase" of haunted and horror books at home. I am planning to add this to my display.  I am, however, sending the info to my Coordinator to hopefully get this added, along with several others in the series.  

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

The Witches of BlackBrook Trilogy by Tish Thawer

Earlier this month I bought a t-shirt with the quote "we are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn."  I decided to search for the origin of this quote.  It appears the original author is unknown, but the quote appears as the introductory hook to the first book in this trilogy The Witches of BlackBrook.  So I purchased it along with the two sequels, The Daughters of Maine and The Sisters of Salem, on the recommendation of Amazon.

The first novel alternates between the present day in a small town in upstate New York and the past, particularly Ipswich, Massachusetts in the 1600s.  Of course, we know that time period includes the Salem Witch Trials.  The main character, Trin, is a witch who was to be burned at the stake.  She performed a spell intended to transport herself and her sisters to a safe place.  Instead, all true witches present were sent to the future, dispersed among the Northeast.  Trin and her two sisters spend each lifetime searching for each other, but only two succeed each time until now.

I don't want to spoil too much in the plot, as this is a kinda whodunit.  And then there are two sequels which further develop the story.  In all honesty though, the 3 could have been one longer book instead of 3 overlapping ones.    

Greatest trilogy I've ever read?  No.  Terrible?  Also no.  A good series to get lost in when you need to escape to reality?  Yep.  I'll be donating the three to our collection and adding them once I have a working label printer again.

Remember all opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This is review #2 for today 9/7/21.

Full disclosure, I actually read this in 2019 for another purpose (one of my former side gigs), so I could not review it here.  This is the Teachers' Book Club selection for September 2021, and since I no longer have said side gig, I figure after two years I can review it here.  

I. Love. This. Book.  

And apparently so do many of you, because I can't keep it on the shelf.  Thus, once we decided to make this a selection, I bought it again to donate a second copy.  You KNOW a book has to be good for me to dedicate space to a 2nd!  I read this over this weekend to prepare.  I'm eagerly awaiting our club's meeting!

Kya is a small child, the youngest in a poor family living on the marshy coast of North Carolina.  Her older siblings and mother leave to escape her abusive alcoholic father, who eventually leaves her too.  Kya learns to survive on her own, harvesting mussels and smoking fish and tending a garden. A young man named Tate teaches her to read, but she is also pursued by Chase, the star quarterback (moreso as the wild Marsh Girl than actual love).  

in 1969, Chase is found murdered in the marsh, and Kya (poor, uneducated) is the primary suspect. 

I don't want to spoil any more.  You HAVE to read this, and you HAVE to keep reading until the very end.  I can tell you that Ms. Marcella jumped up off her couch accidentally flinging one of her cats she was so shocked.  I cried the first time and I cried again Sunday.  

I will be adding this to our collection as soon as my printer is fixed and I can make labels again.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog or the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

Good morning! First, a happy new year to our Jewish faculty, staff, and students! Today will be a two-fer of a book I didn't care for and a book I really loved! Let's start with the one I really didn't like.

I am usually a fan of the odd, weird, and strange.  So a coming of age story that blends with an alien abduction story sounded great, which I was I put this on last year's order.  Over the past few months, I've started, stopped, restarted, and tried again, but I simply could NOT get into this.  This weekend my son biked the Tour de Lyme (26 miles!), so I had a lot of time to kill.  This was one of the 2 books I brought.  I finally gave up for good about 1/2 of the way in.

Liv is a high school senior in a small town.  Her father was one of the school's English teachers and drama/theater advisor.  A few years ago he disappeared, then reappeared naked and crazed on the main road.  Claiming he had been abducted by aliens, he descends into madness in an effort to trap said aliens.  He is fired from his teaching job and then disappears again.

Another teen, Doug, whom I'd call a survivalist had been Liv's father's understudy in trying to trap the aliens, but Liv has had enough pretending to be nice and keep trying.  OF COURSE the day she decides to tell Doug off, they catch one.

I couldn't keep going. I honestly felt no sympathy for Liv, no empathy for Doug, no hope for her father.  

Now, what does not interest me enough to keep reading doesn't mean it won't interest you.  This will still be part of our collection and available to check out.

Stay tuned for the next review.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it, are solely those of Mrs. W.