Except…makes me wonder what I looked like the first time….

Billed as a supernatural thriller, this book misses the mark.  More, contemporary drama with supernatural elements.  Leeann, is pretty foul-mouthed and not to mention something of a gold digger, although see probably would see it as being real.  She is certainly not much of a sympathetic character, she lies, cheats, steals, drinks, smokes, and does drugs.  However, her clarity of why people do what they do rings true.

As a gothic “beach read” this book works, but don’t dig too deep.

Young Albert is devastated when he learns the Captain who bought Joey was killed, and knows this means in all likelihood that Joey was killed too.  However, Albert enlists in the service to find Joey.  Joey’s ability to touch all those who take care of him is poignant, but for me this became a bit too melodramatic.  The cinematography is beautiful, but the plot is a bit contrived.  I had heard about the Broadway show and that it was touted as being “magical”, so maybe my hopes were just too high…

Good, but not “magical”

Matt Damon does a great job as Mee.  He is earnest and quixotic.  He is charming and manages to not been too cheesy.  Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly, the zoos animal keeper.  Right from the beginning it is clear there is a love story brimming, but thankfully it stays just below the surface.  Thomas Haden Church as Mee’s brother is hilarious in his usual deadpan delivery.  But besides the animals, little Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Rosie, Mee’s daughter, steals every scene she is in.  Adorably cute, with some of the best facial expressions I’ve seen in a movie, she glows throughout the movie.

The movie makes some typical changes from the book.  But the movie still manages to delight.  It is pleasant and with the exception of one or two words it family appropriate.

While there are a few interesting tidbits, I think for the most part this short book is derived of common sense for most people.  Gladwell gives a few fun specific examples and breaks them down in ways that most people would never take the time to do.  But I think that question that is probably better asked is do we need to break these things down and find the maven at the center of things?  In most cases no.  But it is a fun party trick to find out who the friend epicenter is in your group.  Gladwell note that most people who have a friend group of, let’s say, 50 can trace those 50 friends back through only a few single people.  Like I’m friends with Amy because she dated Max, whom I went to high school with.  So without Max I would know Amy, etc.

Read it if you’re bored, but not otherwise.

Cannell produced a tight novel with a urgent feeling I like to get from crime thrillers.  Pages turned quickly and the plot was not left hanging or too outlandish.

Doug’s wonder about what happened to his old teammates was precipitated by finding a newspaper article about one of the players having been killed, partially dismembered, and dumped in a ditch. Doug finds that many of the players dealt with a lot of the same issues, racial and otherwise, often coming at them from different angles. He clearly spends a lot of time researching environment vs. evolution and devotes much space to giving the reader the background of the culture, economics, and location. The Hustle is set in and around Seattle during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

What results is a readable and interesting look at a teeny tiny case study of socio economic factors. Doug’s voice is inquisitive and alternatively that of a college professor lecturing the class. At points he gets to the heart of the matter and engages the reader, and at others he rambles to himself. However, overall, this book was interesting, but rambles a bit.

This book was pretty much stock James Patterson.  I was a little struck by the fact that Cross has been such a poppa bear in the books leading up to this one, why wasn’t he more protective of his family in the midst of a terrorist attack.  I mean the water supply was poisoned and he never thought, “ummm we are under attack, maybe I won’t send the kids to school today..”, this just seemed glossed over a bit.  But as Patterson’s novels normally are, it was entertaining and read quick enough that you don’t mind some holes in the plot.

While her career is exploding, Kate’s life undergoes an implosion when she runs into her ex boyfriend and her ex best friend that ran off together…and said ex best friend is pregnant with ex boyfriend’s baby.  Comforting Kate, her friend Christine counsels her to keep a level head.  On a trip to buy a Christmas tree, Kate meets a wonderful man. 

Now, this is where the story goes a little haywire for me.  Kate meets this wonderful man with four crazy dogs named after famous philosophers, and after a short spell of bliss, the seemingly normal Kate experiences love at first sight with her dear friend Christine’s husband (who’s also her new costar).  Now the dog man goes off to write screenplays, but Kate still has the dogs and she’s fighting all these feelings for Christine’s  husband Wyatt, which he apparently reciprocates.  Now, I just don’t see this woman allowing herself to be involved with another woman’s husband when the big shakeup in her life was her best friend and her boyfriend getting together behind her back.  And also I won’t give it away, but there is a totally unsatisfying ending, which just stops.  Like the authors hit their page quota and put the pen down.

However the tone of the novel and the characters are interesting and quirky…good beach read but not for the seriousness of fall.

Al has decided Jake Epping is the man to finish his life’s work.  After much though and a little experimentation Al decided he would go to the past and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  He figures if this event did not occur the course of history would change for the better.  This event is also a biggest thing happen in and around the time he is taken back to, since he continues to age it has to be something within a man’s life.  However when he is diagnosed with lung cancer, he knows he cannot complete the mission.  Jake however, is young, divorced with no children.  Al has done the leg work and knows the whereabouts of Kennedy’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald leading up the the assassination, but wants to be 100% positive the Oswald was the killer.  If he kills him and Oswald was not the shooter or had a partner the assassination could still happen and all of the time spend in the past would be for naught.

One important law of the time travelling Al discovered is going back in the past does indeed change the future, but each time he goes back into the past, all is reset.  For example there is a little girl who was crippled by a wayward bullet from a hunter.  Al went back and stopped this from happening.  However each time he we back to 1958 to buy his meat he had to redo this act of kindness or history was reset to its default of crippling the girl.

Naturally Jake accepts this mission to stop Oswald after a test trip to the past.  He has a score of his own he wants to settle, a drunk man who kills his own family, except one son who he scars and maims.  Jake wants to stop this,  which takes him to Derry for a short time.  (with regards to Pennywise)  Then he figures he should probably save the girl from the hunting accident before setting about to make sure Oswald acted alone and then stop him.  Since Kennedy’s assassination is in 1963, Jake has four years to pass.  In present day he is a teacher, so he becomes one in the past too.  In fact he creates a whole life for himself…possibly one he doesn’t want to leave.  He also struggles with what the future will look like if the past does get changed so dramatically… will it be for the better for worse?

King’s word spill from the page and I couldn’t read them fast enough.  Part science fiction (and I am by no means a scifi kinda girl) part revisionist history…the tone is set perfectly by calm Jake and his decidedly unflowery though process.  There’s even a bit of a love story…1960s-style.

I’ll leave out references to the ending for those who will read this and just say that I agree with Mr. King, the past is obdurate.