No Rules

1971 - Free love reigns and hippies are the center of the counterculture movement. Sixteen year old Sharon Dukett had enough of her parents and the rules and expectations laid out for her (get married and start a family) so she and her older sister move to California and thus begin some of the most formative coming of age experiences for Sharon. Drugs, new lovers, responsibilities (or lack thereof), protests, spiritualism, and travel. This memoir really encompasses what it was like to be a free spirit during the early seventies: communes, acid, feminism, hitchhiking, and so many elements are the norm. It's fascinating to grow up through her eyes as she experiences things that most of us will only ever read about. The level of memory it takes to recall all these stories (I assume the conversations are generalized - no one's memories are that good) is impressive. This memoir spans about two years and kind of has an abrupt ending. It was very enlightening - what a time to be alive!

The Only Good Indians

Four young American Indian men commit a crime, never knowing that the damage they were about to inflect would come back to haunt them. Ten years later the evil they wrought finds them one by one looking to settle the score. The men have moved on and moved apart - two of them no longer live on the reservation and one of them even married a white woman. They have never dwelled on what happened that fateful night - choosing to go about their life in willful ignorance. The Elk Head Woman has never forgotten though; she has bided her time and nothing less than blood and vengeance will settle the score. The Only Good Indians seamlessly merges culture and tradition with anxiety inducing horror. Stephan Graham Jones has been compared to as the Jordan Peele of horror literature and after reading this I am inclined to agree. The audio-book was phenomenal and the narrator chosen was of American Indian descent so he really embodied the characters, their cadences, their culture, and their language. For me this was more of a 4.5 because of the slow build at parts - but the creep and unease it generated was a full 5 stars.

Love Her or Lose Her

I really wanted to like this book because I so enjoyed the first one in the "Hot and Hammered" series but honestly this second installment was a let down. The romantic progression was entirely unbelievable, it was misogynistic, and did I mention unbelievable. This married couple has mind blowing sex - constantly - they've only ever been with each other and have never even flirted with someone else, let alone bone them. The sex is constant and amazing but they never talk anymore so the wife decides to get therapy to jolt them back to the way they used to be. UGH. I'm not even inspired to write anymore about this book - I'll still read the next one - but I did not care for this one.

The War of the Worlds

I know, I know - a classic that I'm just now reading. Prior to this I had only ever seen the Tom Cruise film adaptation! Better late than never. The fact that this was written when it was - before electronics and technology as we know it was incredible. It set the tone for science fiction as we know it. The parts I didn't love were the constant name dropping of towns (If I saw the word Woking one more damn time...) and the slow build - sometimes on the point of boring drudgery. Overall though it's a fantastic piece of literature - even if my lazy ass brain had to struggle through parts of it. It definitely made me want to watch more film versions if nothing else.

Big Summer

This would have gotten a 5 star from me but I was completely thrown by the *SPOILER ALERT* murder mystery portion in the second half of the novel. I really like Daphne and she seemed like a real well fleshed out (ha ha) character that I enjoyed. As a plus size lady myself she came across as authentic which doesn't always come across in books. Daphne is a plus size influencer who finally came to terms with her body about  6 or 7 years prior when her frenemy paid a man to flirt with her and then got mad when Daphne was upset. Once she cut out the frenemy (Drue) and came to terms with her body - doors opened up for her and she just landed a sweet new sponsorship for her instagram. Then out of the blue Drue comes crashing back into her life asking if Daphne will be her maid of honor because she doesn't really have any friends. Daphne gets sucked right back in because she is a sucker for a sob story and even though Drue has a mean streak - she just has that fun aura about her. First half of the book was great - second half was a little out there.

The Vanishing Act

A charming book that warms your heart and bursts with creativity. 12 year old Minou, lives on a small wintery island with her father, a priest, and an ex-magician with a dog named no-name. Her spunky mother was once counted as one of the inhabitants but she vanished one night and all the adults on the island are positive that she is dead. Minou however is not convinced - a fan of the philosophers that her father loves - she makes a list containing all the reasons that support her theory. When they find a frozen dead boy on the beach and bring him to the house to await the next boat shipment - both Minou and her father start to reflect on her mother and the circumstances that led to her disappearing from the small island. Filled with fun, quirky characters - this adorable story told through a child's eyes is not one that readers will forget.

The Space Between Worlds

Wow - the amount of precision and craft put into this worldbuilding novel is impressive. Cara is a traverser or a world jumper. She lives on Earth 0 where the world's smartest man has figured out that there are 382 parallel worlds and he knows how to access them all. The only catch is the world will kill you and spit you back out if a version of you is still alive on that version of Earth. That's what makes Cara so special - in all the worlds she's had tough upbringings - and in most of them she's already dead. That means she can travel to all but 8 of them - collecting information from data ports to send back to her boss. But when something unexpected happens she begins to distrust the entire organization. Is she just a carrier pigeon to them? Is their something else going on that she isn't aware of. Honestly the scope of this novel is stunning - I wish it were part of a series instead of a standalone!