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Frank Fisher is
nothing. He wants to be something. When a mysterious young woman named
Bonnie offers assistance by injecting seeds of inspiration directly into
his brain, Frank finds himself involved in a twisting mystery full of
addiction, desperation and self-discovery. Broken Bulbs, a novella by
Eddie Wright, tells the story of the lengths one young man will go in
the pursuit of "somethingness."
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this book. I liked it, but it was...different.
What I liked:
- The writing. It was descriptive without being flowery and it matched the tone and the pacing of the story.
- The editing. Most Indie books are full of errors. It was a nice
change to read something that was well-written. I only caught one
instance of a missing word.
- The intrigue. I was thoroughly
confused about what was going on, but I was sucked in to the story and
kept reading. And I want to know more!
- The price. I got the Kindle version for free on Amazon. A great way to learn about a new author!
What I didn't like:
- I'm still not sure what the point of the story is and I have a lot of unanswered questions.
Given
that I liked more than I didn't like, I am giving this novella four
stars. I think that this author has a lot of potential and I will
definitely read more of his work should he publish anything else.
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She's a beautiful wreck who hates men, but loves animals. Beaten and left for dead, she suffers from night terrors. He's handsome. He's wealthy. He's in a wheelchair. His entire life has changed, and the past months have been hell.
**I won this book from Goodreads as a First Reads giveaway**
Can you give a book less than one star? I must have read a different book than the five people who originally rated this five stars. Because OMG: this was a painful read.
Trite. Banal. Underwhelming.
I should look up more words in my thesaurus, since I'm pretty sure the author did the same thing throughout the book. Very high-school-esque. There are a number of references to the 1980s. Bolero jacket, anyone? I'm assuming this was written 20+ years ago and was published without anyone looking at it in the present day.
Glaring mistakes: The price on the back of the book is listed as $!5.00. There are three pictures on the front cover, the back cover, and within the first few pages, all of which show different women of differing nationalities. Very confusing. None of the men are in wheelchairs. In the middle of the book, the pages are out of order, so you wonder what on earth is going on when you flip from page 180 to 187, then page 192 to 181.
Those, however, are the least of this book's problems: there are grammatical errors; inconsistencies in timeline; and misplaced punctuation. To start. It gets worse. How? The lack of plot. And the two-dimensional characters. And the cheesy dialog. And the spineless female lead, Sienna. And the I-loved-life-until-I-landed-in-a-wheelchair love interest. And the book's message that you have to be in a relationship in order to be happy. WTF? Sienna goes on a European vacation with a guy she can't stand, which her "best" friend pushes her to do. WHY? I saw zero motivation in any action performed by any character.
There is a psychic/medium. A half-dozen car accidents. Mention of an Incubus. A "twist" at the end that you can see coming a mile away. Technically-correct sex scenes which are so dull I wanted to poke my eyes out: palming her buttocks? Really?
I need to go read some YA dystopian fiction to lift my spirits.
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Dana, a modern black
woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband
when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and
transported to the antebellum South.
Rufus, the white son of a
plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the
years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again
and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will
grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor.
Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous,
until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it
has even begun.
For
a book club challenge, I had to read a book by a black author or about a
black character. I had not heard of Octavia Butler prior to doing a
Goodreads Listopia search to find a good book. I am incredibly glad that I chose
this work: the writing flows naturally, even across centuries; the
premise is one that I had not encountered before; and it is a story that
will stay with me long after I return my copy to the library.
The
combination of historical fiction and time travel -- as told through
the eyes of a modern* black woman -- presents us with a host of
questions! There are the standard time travel questions of whether or
not changing the past will change the future. But then there are the
deeper questions: How does a strong, well-educated black woman survive
in an era when slaves are considered property, not human beings? How do
you remember who you are in the present when you're told that you're
"too black" and "too white" in the past?
An amazing read that keeps you thinking. I look forward to reading more of Butler's works!
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Welcome to colorful Trenton, New Jersey, and the wild and wonderful world of Stephanie Plum. In One for the Money,
rookie "apprehension agent" Plum may be a bit wet behind the ears, but
nobody's gonna take it easy on her; especially her first skip, an ex-cop
and murder suspect named Morelli.
2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because I actually finished it and didn't toss it aside.
I
knew going in that this book was published in 1994, so I expected some
outdated references. I laughed out loud at the reminder of wireless
land-line phones with pull-up antennae and "car" phones. Ah, the good
ol' days when you got 20 minutes a month and each additional minute cost
$1 (as my father used to constantly remind me). But the Spandex biker
shorts? Ugh. How many outfits did she wear in this book? I swear that
60% of them involved Spandex and t-shirts.
:: shudder ::
What I mostly took away from the book was the ridiculous machismo. I really don't get the whole "I know he may be a murderer, but he's really hot, so it's okay to flirt with him"
thing. The main character -- Stephanie Plum -- was not nearly as
outraged at the violence against women she was seeing and experiencing as she should be. And how on earth does someone who's been a bounty
hunter for all of two days keep running into the person she's tracking?
Meanwhile, the cops and previous bounty hunters have no idea where to
look. Honestly? She's kind of an idiot.
There
was too much going on in terms of the "mystery" and the ending was
anti-climactic. It was almost as though Evanovich decided that it would
be a good time for the book to come to a close, so voila! Here is all
of the information on the bad guys. Case closed. Resume flirting.
Thankfully this book was a quick read.
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I am finally writing my review of James' 50 Shades trilogy, after having posted this elsewhere on-line.
I have very strong feelings about this series. Bear with me and take what I say with a grain of salt.
50SG
started as Master of the Universe (MotU) in the Twilight fanfiction
community. It was a decent fic. Not great, but also not terrible like
some of the drivel out there. There wasn't a lot of character
development, but it didn't matter because everyone knew who Edward,
Bella, and the other characters were. The sex scenes weren't as hot as
one of the other popular BDSM fics (tarasueme's The Submissive trilogy),
but it was a surprisingly compelling read. And for a Twific, that's
fine. It doesn't have to be a well-written story, because a lot is
already assumed by the readers.
What I have a problem with, since MotU became 50SG:
- Twilight fanfic (or any fandom's fic) is written BY people who love the
series FOR people who love the series. A series that was written by
Stephanie Meyer. She owns the Intellectual Property. Illegal? Maybe
not. Ethical? I don't think so.
- This whole pull-to-publish
phenomenon--while not exclusive to the Twi fandom--has caused a split in
the community. While I realize this doesn't matter to people outside
of the fandom, it has affected a lot of people.
- James made very
few changes in a work that was previously posted on-line. For free.
Which you can still download today, rather than pay $30.
- The writing is juvenile. It's fine in fanfic, but as a published book? No. Just no.
- James portrays BDSM in a negative light, with Bella/Ana talking about
how she can change Edward/Christian and bring him out of the darkness. BDSM is about
sexual pleasure; it's not this awful, painful experience that's going
to drag you down into hell.
- We are introduced to two Doms: 1)
Edward/Christian, who was abused as a child and has mommy issues that
cause him to play with subs who LOOK LIKE HIS MOTHER; and 2) Mrs.
Robinson, a PEDOPHILE who started a D/s relationship with a
FIFTEEN-year-old BOY. A boy who was acting out because he was abused
and needed professional help. If it had been a middle-aged man taking
on an abused fifteen-year-old girl as a sexual submissive, dude would
have been arrested and branded a sex offender.
- BDSM is used as an excuse for Edward/Christian to be a domineering, controlling asshole. And Bella/Ana just accepts this.
- A 21-year-old college graduate without an e-mail address? Really?
- Edward/Christian buys the company that Bella/Ana goes to work for so he can keep an eye on her. Really? Really?
- Edward/Christian is a 27-year-old billionaire who never seems to do any
actual work. Entrepreneurs and C-level executives work all.the.time in
real life.
- The term "mommy porn" is ridiculous. Porn is porn.
You know what I think mommy porn is? A hot guy to watch my kids and
clean my house while I go to the spa.
I'll stop. I could go on and on and on.
On
a positive note (you didn't think there would be one, did you?), I have
to give the book credit for bringing female sexuality to the
mainstream. Yay for women embracing their own desires!
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In a vase in a closet, a
couple of years after his father died in 9/11, nine-year-old Oskar
discovers a key...The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But
which of New York's 162 million locks does it open? So begins a quest
that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective -
across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends,
relatives and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself
little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family
mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer
to, or even further from, his lost father?
I
love this book! It took me a while to get used to the
stream-of-consciousness writing, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.
It was heartbreaking, funny, moving, and sentimental.
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Gathered from the popular website www.StellaAwards.com, The True Stella Awards is an outrageous collection of America's most frivolous lawsuits
Named for Stella Liebeck, the woman who won a multimillion-dollar
lawsuit after spilling hot McDonald's coffee on herself, humorist Randy
Cassingham's popular website chronicles the hard-to-believe and amusing
claims brought before the U.S.courts. The most ridiculous of these
lawsuits are given the "honorable" Stella Award.
In The True Stella Awards, Cassingham documents the most outlandish of these real-life cases, including:
- The man who legally changed his name to Jack Ass, and then sued MTV because their TV show and movie Jackass infringed on his trademark and demeaned his "good name"
- The songwriter who left a minute's silence on his record only to be
sued by the estate of another songwriter who copyrighted his own "silent" song
- The man who sued an amusement park after being the
victim of the ultimate act of God: He was hit by lightning while
standing next to his own car in the parking lot
Stunning and hilarious, The True Stella Awards reveals the extremes people will go to in the pursuit of "justice."
The
True Stella Awards comprises a series of 2-3 page "chapters" on
assorted frivolous lawsuits. I had forgotten all about this book, so
when I came across it on my bookshelves, I was excited to re-read it.
Just as when I first read the book, I found myself shaking my head and
wondering how we -- as a society -- have allowed such lawsuits to
continue. And reading about others' poor choices and stupidity is
always good schadenfreude. ;)
