Year 5, week 1: A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthur's Court / Anna Karenina

Year 5, everybody!

A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthur's Court
By Mark Twain

I have always meant to read this book, but never actually gotten around to it. I know, I know, I definitely should have read it years ago. I knew the story, but I actually haven't sat down and read the book. Everyone talks about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but this was by far my favorite of Mark Twain's books. 

A man going back to the time of knights and castles, all the while the guy is thinking they are all so crazy. It has always been my father's favorite of Twain's as well. My dad has always loved Mark Twain and time travel, so it makes sense. 

I would strongly recommend this book. 

Anna Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy

This is another book that has been on my shelf forever. I have picked up my paperback copy at least ten times and then promptly put it back down. I ended up listening to the novel and I still couldn't get into the story. The book is over eight hundred pages and all the characters are so whiny and gossipy. 

I should have just gone with my gut and moved onto other books I would have enjoyed more. The book is a classic so people will keep reading it, but I didn't care for it. 

Year 4, week 52: Malibu Rising

This week's book:
Malibu Rising
By Taylor Jenkins Reid

This week's book is by an author I have read before. I didn't even know she had come out with a new book until it showed up on my Book of the Month options. Both Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (the other two books I have read by the author) have to do with Hollywood and the music industry, and this book is no different. 

The book is about four siblings and a crazy party one night in the early 1980's. The four siblings are the main characters, but you also get little vignettes from other people attending the party. It would make a fun movie, and once you pick it up, it's hard to put down. The only reason it took me a little longer was because our baby girl is refusing to sleep and I haven't been able to ride the stationary bike, where I get a lot of my actual reading done instead of just listening to audiobooks. 

I will say that there are a few hard moments in the book with the siblings' alcoholic mother and their self centered singer father, but I would definitely recommend this book. 

Year 4, week 51: Max Brooks two-fer

Devolution
By Max Brooks

I have read both of Brooks' zombie books, but this book is its own thing. Kind of like World War Z, this book is a first person account of a tragic event. But this time the monsters are Big Foot like creatures instead of Zombies. The premise sounded so dumb, that Big Foot, or a lot of Big Foot things attack, but when I saw the audiobook was recorded with a full cast of celebrities, I had to give it a whirl. 

The book revolves around a volcano eruption that leads to a pack of creatures attacking all these people who are stuck in their homes. The book ended up a bit creepy and maybe a little too yucky, but I ended up really getting into the novel. I couldn't stop listening to it. One review I saw about the book explained why a lot of people connected to it right when it came out in 2020 was because it is all about people isolated in their homes while these critters are trying to kill them. 

I would recommend it if you want a weird thriller type of book that feels like a documentary film. 

The Zombie Survival Guide
By Max Brooks

My hubby and I started this book a few years ago and put it down because it's structured like a textbook about zombies and how to fight them. I read this entirely on the stationary bike and it took me forever to finish, even though it's not that long of a book. 

The book is so in-depth and well done, but unless you are super into zombies (or have a kid that wants to do a research paper like project about zombies) I'd take a pass on this one. 

Year 4, week 50: Beautiful You

This week's book:
Beautiful You
By Chuck Palahniuk

No. No, no, no, no.

No, just... no.

Note from the Hubs: I'm taking over this week, Emily and I have been super busy getting ready for the move.

We tried to read this book together a few months ago; couldn't finish it. Just way too many WTF moments added purely for shock value, and the plot was nonsense. 

Year 4, week 49: The Shining / Doctor Sleep

 The Shining and its sequel, Doctor Sleep this week!

The Shining
By Stephen King

This book was a buddy read for a reading challenge that I have been doing for some months now. When I signed up for the buddy read, I asked the hubby if he wanted to read the book with me and he agreed he wanted to read it too. 

True confession: I tried to read this book when I was pregnant with my middle child, and just couldn’t get into it, no matter how hard I tried. I of course had seen the 1980 film a few times, and it was never my favorite King story, but I am glad I gave it another try. 

I think most people have heard of The Shining, and it’s probably one of King’s best known works. The story is of a man and his family being the winter caretakers of a hotel in the mountains. The guy gets cabin fever and the hotel also may or may not make people go crazy, so that’s how the horror begins. 

I still don’t think it’s my favorite of King’s books (or films), but again I am glad I gave the book another try. We re-watched the original film, which King didn’t like because he felt it wasn’t a true adaptation. I have always found it kind of boring since it was such it was such a pop culture juggernaut and have been referenced so much. We tried to watch the mini series from the 1990's and it's a much more honest telling of the book, but we couldn't get through it. I fell asleep every time we tried to watch it.

Notes from the hubby:  

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Sorry, had to do it. Overall, I enjoyed the book quite a bit myself. Though I'm glad we didn't read this during the beginning of the pandemic; it probably would have been in bad taste to make jokes for a book about a family stuck in isolation in a hotel while isolated in our own house.

 Also, I might have to agree with King on this one; definitely some liberties taken with the movie adaptation here (plus, the Simpsons Halloween special spoof may have ruined "The Shinning" for me).

Doctor Sleep
By Stephen King

This is the long awaited sequel to The Shining. This was also a buddy read for my book group, as well as my big sister's recommendation for a good audiobook. King says that his fans were always asking about what happened to the characters of the original book. Heck, King even wondered about their fates while he was driving or in the shower, so he finally wrote his ideas down. 

Even though the book is a sequel, it didn't really seem like one. The book is about a grown Danny (the little boy from The Shining) and his attempts to stay sober. He still has "the shining" and he becomes connected mentally to another girl that has the shining as well. There are a pack of nomadic type of vampires that feed on people who have these special mental abilities. 

In his own words, King isn't the same kind of writer that he was when he originally wrote The Shining, so this sequel wasn't going to be the same kind of book. I didn't read this with the hubby, but don't worry, I made him watch the movie with me. 

I enjoyed this book, still not my favorite of his books, and definitely not to be listed while you are with kiss, but I would recommend it if you like creepy stories.

Notes from the hubby: I didn't read the book, but from what I heard about the book, the movie adaptation was a sequel to the film The Shining, so the story is adjusted accordingly (can't say where without spoiling both stories).