Both Eeny Meany and The Ice Twins are set in Great Britain, and both are mysteries. So why not review them together? Both are also hard to put down, but their storylines and tempos are vastly different.
Eeny Meany involves a tough, strong female detective chasing a twisted serial killer who seems to have taken a page out of the “Saw” movies’ playbook. The killer doesn’t actually do the killing, just pits two people against one another with an extreme ultimatum: only one gets out alive.
Author S. K. Tremayne’s The Ice Twins, haunting in a much different way than Eeny Meany, is a ghost story complete with a wind rattled lighthouse cottage on a deserted island wrapped up in a thriller that leaves you guessing until the end.
Read moreThe Martian is my first audio book review. I used to think this was cheating, but then I started a long daily commute that drove me to the edge of insanity. A friend recommended audio books as a way to not only cope, but expand my literary repertoire. Another friend recommended The Martian. As it turns out, I’m hooked.
My hesitation in starting audio books is that it isn’t reading. Am I using my brain the same way? Am I using the same number of cells and keeping my cognitive functions as engaged as when sitting down with an actual book in my hand? Ah, who cares. I was completely engaged. I started walking around my house with my headphones in while folding laundry. I had to hear more. And my commute? Much more tolerable. In fact…well, don’t tell my boss.
Andy Weir is a self-proclaimed “space nerd” and worked as a programmer and software engineer since age 15. His debut novel embraces his nerdy tendencies. This guy loves space. And the book (audio) was really good. I do have a confession though. There is a lot of time with our hero spent alone on Mars. He recites calculations and measurements about chemistry, physics, and agriculture ad nauseam. I fast forwarded. Yep, I did. And I’m not sorry. Still got the gist and don’t feel I missed a thing.
Read moreAuthor Herman Koch’s Summer House with Swimming Pool opens with Marc Schlosser, the main character and narrator, explaining to the reader what a caring doctor he is to his patients - how his patients come from miles away because of his genuine, heart-felt bedside manner. He is woefully unconvincing in his delivery.
Despite what his patients may think, right off the bat, Marc is unlikeable. He is insensitive and judgmental. Koch lays down Marc’s thoughts in long, self-important paragraphs that drag on for pages. Surprisingly, though, the antagonist in the book, chauvinistic stage and screen actor, Ralph Meier, is even less likeable.
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