Review: Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Becoming" was this year's celebrity autobiography choice for my book club. It took me a while to get through it, but it was a good read.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a book written by a former First Lady, but was pleasantly surprised to find this wasn't a book about politics. Rather, "Becoming" is a recount of Michelle's life from childhood through meeting and falling in love with Barack through his presidency.

I liked the frank candor in which she told her story. I was surprised to learn about her more humble roots and I found her first impressions of Barack to be hilarious. I love that she didn't sugarcoat her feelings about his political ambitions or the strain his campaigning for lower offices and eventually his two terms as president put on her own ambitions and more than that, their family life. It was interesting to see her initiative for healthier school lunches stemmed from her own daughter and the convenience food lifestyle they had fallen into during the various campaigns.

I did find the section after Barack was elected to be a bit repetitious and at times, it felt like it droned on. It also didn't feel as linear to me as the rest of the book. But as I read what her motivations were and what she and Barack both hoped to achieve, and how Michelle wanted to know the people in the White House as more than employees, I couldn't help but wonder how Melania Trump's autobiography would read and how the permanent staff is being treated now.

Michelle was not shy in her opinion of Trump being elected, so that is sure to offend some people, but those people probably aren't going to pick this up anyway. But she's also very down-to-earth and both humbled and appreciative of the life she has lived, fully admitting that she's been blessed. I don't know if I would have picked it up had it not been a book club book, simply because I generally stay away from anything even remotely pertaining to politics, but I'm glad I read this one.

View all my reviews

Review: Private Vegas

Private Vegas by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars. I would probably rate this book higher if I wasn't breaking my rule about not listening to books in the same series back-to-back-to-back as I likely wouldn't have remembered some of the details. I was excited to see that Maxine Paetro was the co-author of this one as I generally like her books.

But alas, I also like continuity. I'm 99% sure that in the last U.S. based book, Justine, who was a pretty focal character had two dogs, not a dog and a cat. But it's apparently been at least 6 months since that one so maybe those dogs died and she got new pets.

That aside, I was expecting more of this book to take place in Vegas since all the other books have taken place in the location of their title, but this one took place primarily in L.A. As always, there were multiple mysteries taking place here: Private finding their hands tied when two suspects have diplomatic immunity, leaving them free to terrorize women (the part that takes place in Vegas), cars are being blown-up in the area where Jack lives (including Jack's) and Private investigator and Jack's best friend, Rick Del Rio, is on trial for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend, prompting Jack's twin brother (who apparently is no longer under investigation for murder? Again, what happened there?) to once again to try to buy out Private and merge it with his company, Private Security. Oh, and one of Jack's oldest clients (both in age and tenure) who he inherited with Private is convinced his trophy wife is trying to kill him.

I liked some things about this book: I really like the team in the U.S. office and they seemed pretty true to character, despite another switch in co-author (Paetro did write one of the earlier books as well). I thought the "class" on how to bag a billionaire husband was hysterical. I honestly did not know which way Rick's trial was going to go so that intrigued me. The part that actually took place in Vegas didn't really seem to flow with the rest of the book and didn't hold my interest that much. But the end, when Jack has his suspicions that Justine has started to date someone else confirmed? Let's just say Jack wasn't the only one who didn't see that coming! I'm looking forward to the next book just to see what happens there.

View all my reviews

Review: Private India

Private India by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Santosh Wagh is the widowed, alcoholic head of Private India and can't decide between his love the bottle and his not wanting to disappoint his boss Jack Morgan when he gets a call about a murder which makes his choice for him. Not long after the first murder, a second one and then a third and fourth happen, all of which seem to have nothing in common. And then, Jack, who happens to be in India is suspected to be involved in them, which ratchets up the team trying to figure them out, which they of course do. And then there is some weird ending that made me wonder what I missed because it seemed to come out of left field.

So yeah, not my favorite book in this series. I couldn't keep the characters straight and I've come to the conclusion that in order to head up one of Private's overseas offices, you must be a widower. (Or have been involved in some sort of horrible car accident that almost left you widowed).

I don't know how many times I restarted chapters before I finally stopped caring. Maybe if the narrator's voice wasn't so flat, it would have helped, but I just couldn't get into this branch of the agency, which is unfortunate since I see there is another India based book in this series by the same co-author. Hopefully, that one is better!


View all my reviews

Review: Private Down Under

Private Down Under by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 Depending on which list you choose to use, this is either book 6 or book 7. Quite frankly, having listened to both, I'm still not entirely sure, but #7 makes more sense unless James Patterson just really doesn't care about continuity in this series.

Anyway, it's the grand opening for Private's latest office, located in Australia. With Los Angeles's second in command, Justine Smith on hand, Craig Guisto is ready to kick things off - which happens sooner than expected when a corpse literally crashes the party through the building's roof. But before the team can really start to look into the young Asian man's brutal murder, Justine gets a call from her sister (who inexplicably lives in Australia, unless I missed that part) that one of her neighbors has been killed, putting the Private team on the trail of two killers. And naturally, as is the norm, Private's involvement is not overly welcomed by the local police.

Okay, what's the deal with all the dead wives in this series? Once again, lead investigator Craig is widowed, setting the stage for his feud with his police officer cousin (a plot device also used in book-3-or-should-it-have-been-4?). This is the second book in which a plot device is redundant (books 1 and whatever number "Berlin" should really be both have fixed sporting events/gambling story lines), and as with my last review makes we wonder if the entire series is going to end up one redundant story after another.

The mystery of why all of Justine's sisters neighbors were being killed was at least interesting and had a nice twist to it. Though why they kept going out alone when they were getting picked off is a bit mind-boggling. The other story was a bit weak though - enough so that I don't entirely remember how it was ultimately resolved, so clearly, it didn't really captivate me that much.

Basically, so far with this series, I'm finding that I'm loving the books set in Los Angeles and the rest are just okay. And with the non-L.A. books "reading" more like stand alone novels than a part of the series, I'm not experiencing the redundancy in the little details issue that usually prevents me from devouring a series straight through like I am this one. So there are pros and cons and overall, I'm enjoying the books enough to continue listening to them.

(This book is also published as "Private: Oz" in some markets).


View all my reviews

Review: Dishwasher

Dishwasher by Pete Jordan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I stumbled across this book while helping with a book sorting project and was intrigued. I was also very surprised that my local library had it, though seeing how much of it takes place in this area does potentially explain that!

At an early age, Pete Jordan realized that the working poor work hard only to stay poor. Figuring he didn't have a chance to break the cycle, he decided not to even bother trying and instead would live the simplest life possible, essentially living as a minimalist well before that was even a thing. Not really a people person, Pete struggled a bit with jobs involving working with the public, until he found his "calling" as a dishwasher while in college. Coupled with his love of maps and exploring cities, Pete set set out on a mission to wash dishes in all 50 states by his 35th birthday.

This was a fun read (until the abrupt ending). I tallied the states as Pete chronicled them to see if he did in fact hit all 50. I looked forward to seeing where he would end up next and found it amusing his "dish dog bucket list" continued to grow as he learned more about the culture behind dish washing.

Infused among his travels are interesting tidbits about the history of dish washers, along with a lot of name dropping of Hollywood actors who have spent time at the sinks. Who knew that Portland, OR was such a mecca for dish washers? Or that it was a woman in Chicago who invented the dishwasher due to being fed up that her servants kept breaking her fine China?

I can see how some people might find this book boring or insipid - I chose to think of it as a lighthearted romp and as a result greatly enjoyed it (again, until the ending, which pretty much sucked). I was glad that the version of the book I had included a preview of his second book, about relocating to Amsterdam, as I felt that gave this one a bit of much needed closure. All in all, though I enjoyed this book enough that I will read his other one as well and have already recommended it to a couple of friends who I feel would appreciate his mindset.

View all my reviews

Review: Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have seen this book on several banned books lists so I selected it for my book club's banned book for this year. It didn't take long to see why it's been banned!

Tired of his life in public school, Miles "Pudge" Halter convinces his parents to send him to the same boarding school his father attended largely due to all the stories Miles has heard of his father's glory days while attending. Virtually friendless at home in Florida, upon his arrival in Alabama, christened "Pudge" by his roommate ("the Colonel"), Miles quickly becomes a part of the Colonel's circle of friends - ultimately falling for friend and fellow classmate, the troubled Alaska Young.

The book is told in the form of a countdown (138 days before, 129 days before, etc) with the reader not knowing what was being counted down. (Or maybe just me since I didn't read the cover to see what the book was about - hence my surprise it doesn't take place IN Alaska as I just assumed based on the title). As the story unfolded, I had a pretty good of what was going to happen - and I was mostly right as to what that was. The second half starts the clock over, this time counting up instead of down.

The first half of this book really sucked me in, though I found Pudge to be a bit too self-indulging and whiny in the second half. I have not read anything else by John Green, but "The Fault in Our Stars" is on my list, which made me nervous to read this one out of fear I wouldn't like it. The intentional vagueness of the tragic event in the book has left me wondering what really happened to Alaska, as it was meant to; I'm really glad I read the interview with John Green at the end of the book as I felt it made the book stronger to read what his thoughts were as he wrote it.

This book is definitely not a wholesome story but I don't feel it's entirely unrealistic either in terms of students seeing how far they can push their boundaries and wanting to act like adults while they are still in school. Conservative parents will have a hard time with letting their children read this one as will parents who fear their children are super impressionable and will emulate the actions they see other teens partaking in (yes, Dad, I mean you). But it's very well-written and while I can see why it's banned, it's a shame that it is.

View all my reviews

Review: Private London

Private London by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 So it turns out this is supposed to be the third book in the series, not the fourth, as a few of the main characters from this book are mentioned in "Games" in a such a way that there is little continuity between the two books and may as well have taken place in different detective agencies rather than the same one. Apparently, for "Games" Patterson and his co-author for that book wanted to go a different direction with the main character? I really don't know but perhaps having the same co-author throughout the series would help.

At any rate, on her 12th birthday, Hannah Shapiro was kidnapped and ultimately rescued by Private owner Jack Morgan just moments after being forced to watch the rape and murder of her mother. Sent to London with a somewhat new identity to attend school and placed in the care of Private's London office, Hannah is finishing her first year of college when she's kidnapped again.

With Jack stuck in L.A. under Federal watch as a material witness in some case that also doesn't seem to have any continuity with the rest of the series (unless I missed something), Jack relies on his head of the London office, Dan Carter (who was supposed to be covertly keeping tabs on Hannah) to get her back. In addition to the kidnapping, there appears to be a serial killer targeting young women and possibly harvesting their organs - which makes finding Hannah seem all that more dire. And the lead detective for the London police just happens to be Carter's ex-wife, Kirsty.

I don't know that I would say this was better or worse than the other London based book. I feel Dan Carter is a stronger character than Peter Knight, however, but in some regards Carter would have been too rough for that story line. The tension between Carter and Kirsty was realistic as they both recalled different elements of their marriage on what would have been their 10th anniversary, but the subplot of the serial killer almost seemed like fluff rather than really adding dimension to the book.

There were a couple of plot twists along the way that made for good listening but I also felt there were too many characters and it was hard to keep them all straight. So after awhile, I stopped trying. While Hannah's and the serial killer's plot lines were wrapped up, there were some loose ends that would indicate the original intent may have been for these characters to reappear so it's a little disappointing that won't happen based on what is revealed in "Games."

Sullivan is the third co-author in the first four books of this series, but is also the co-author in the next one as well so hopefully, "Berlin" will feel like it's part of the series, not more of a stand alone book that has some of the same characters as the books in the series that came before it.



View all my reviews