Nook books

I have continued to read a bunch of books on my Nook.  All ratings out of a possible 5 stars.

A World I Never Made by James LePore (free Nook book)

2 stars

An American father is summoned to Paris to claim the body of his estranged daughter, who has committed suicide.  However, it is not his daughter’s body and the father is convinced that she is in trouble.  After about a day the father falls in love with a police detective (ridiculous).  Thank goodness this was a free Nook Book because the love story is hokey and the book is about a clichéd as one could get.

Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins (free Nook book)

2 stars

A rich recently divorced ex-social worker buys a failing town on the Internet to try to turn it around.  She not only wants to save the town, but also create a community for troubled foster kids.  The characters were silly, the plot was obvious, and the writing was awful.  I can’t believe that it gets such great reviews on Goodreads.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

4 stars

After stumbling upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, the author pens a biography of Abraham Lincoln using historical facts and describing how vampires played a role in Lincoln’s life.  Maybe I am not doing the book justice with that one sentence synopsis, but I was impressed that the author did so much research into Lincoln’s life while intertwining the whole vampire hunter aspect into the book. 

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

2 stars

So my coworker happened to bring the first two books on our trip down to DC so I asked to borrow the first one to see what all of the hype was about.  Let’s just say that I wasn’t impressed.  The writing was really awful.  I mean, I get that this 21 year old girl is naïve, but saying stuff like “then he touched me down there” is ridiculous.  My coworker was seriously gaga over the whole story and Christian Grey (she is really excited about the C.G. adult toy line coming out) whereas I want nothing to do with it.  I will not be reading the next two books.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

3 stars

A “humorous” memoir of the author’s early 20s when he loses both of his parents to cancer in the span of five weeks and inherits his 8-year-old brother.  At times a great book, at times a confusing book.  I loved the references to the northern suburbs of Chicago, but I thought that sometimes he was trying to be too funny and too out there.  He is a talented writer, but I don’t think his style of writing is for me.

Summer of Fire by Linda Jacobs (free Nook book)

3 stars

A fictional tale of Claire Chance, a firefighter and single mother, who after losing her mentor and co-worker in a roof collapse, heads to Yellowstone in 1998 to battle the fires in the National Park.  The author used real fire reports from 1998 for the story which was a nice touch.  The book was entertaining enough- I think that it was helped by the fact that when I went to Yellowstone back in 2006, I could still see the fire damage.

212 (Ellie Hatcher #3) by Alafair Burke (free Nook book)

3 stars

Standard detective novel where plot twists are not tied up until late in the book after a series of murders that can’t be connected.  Entertaining enough for a free book, but I’m not sure that I will pay to read any of this author’s other novels.

Birdman by Mo Hayder (free Nook book)

3 stars

Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered and dumped in a wasteland.  In his first case Detective Jack Caffery has to find the sexual serial killer before he kills again.  I have to admit- this book was pretty gruesome.  It’s also set in London and had a bunch of lingo that I couldn’t quite catch onto because the acronyms are not ones that we use here in the States. 

So, not the best crop of books these past few months.  I did save a lot of money by mainly reading free Friday Nook books thought....  At least my current book (Dark Places by Gillian Flynn) seems to be bucking the trend.  Have you read any good books recently that you can recommend?