47/100

A Hole in the Universe by Mary McGarry Morris

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
A friend at work gave me this work over the summer. I read the first few chapters and then left it lying around in my car for months. I didn't really want to finish it, but one day I was bored and the book in my car was all I had. I am glad I picked it back up. Once I got reimmursed in the story, I was really interested in finishing it.

The story is about Gordon Loomis, a large man who just got out of jail for murder. As a teenager, he was an unwilling accomplice in the murder of a young pregnant girl. Now Gordon must find a job and a way to integrate himself back into society. Across the street from him lives Jada, a 13 year old street smart girl who lives with her drug addicted mother. It was frustrating at times to see how much Gordon had to deal with and also how inept he was at simple tasks. I felt like the book ended a little too open-ended for my liking.


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46/100

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The descriptions that people gave about the goriness of this book did not lie. But luckily, I like a little gore!



The main character of this book is a cocaine addicted pornographer. While driving high and drinking, he hallucinates and crashes his car. The resulting fire leaves him horribly deformed. In the hospital, he thinks of fail-proof ways to kill himself. One day he is approached by a psych patient who claims to have known him before. The two wind up falling in an interesting version of love.



This is the not the type of book that I usually like because it has far-fetched time travelly type sections and stories told by a character dealing with the past. But somehow I really enjoyed it.


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45/100

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
I tried with this book. Really, I did. I loved the title and was hopeful for the premise. I tried listening on audiobook but it was absolutely dreadful. It was incredibly boring and basically just told about how teachers and textbooks are stupid. The person reading the book put such emphasis on the word TEXTBOOK (I word that was used half a million times) that it started driving me nuts. I only got to disk three and then had to say forget about it.


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44/100

Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was standard Jonathan Kellerman fare. It was good and held my interest, but nothing really blew me away. I think the fact that it took me a while to read made it get a little confusing at times.


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43/100

Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I really contemplated giving this a two star rating, but only because I love Janet Evanovich and this just wasn't up to par. I understand that it is one of her older books but it was really fluffy and predictable and there were even spelling mistakes. I gave it three stars because it was an easy read that I didn't want to put down.


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42/100

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book took me FOREVER to read. It wasn't bad, I just think it took some time to get into it and between Christmas, and Daisy, and everything else I just couldn't keep up with it. Therefore, when I did pick it up I just wasn't that interested. But by the time I really dedicated myself to reading it, it was not bad. I started to care about the characters and what happened to them. I think the plot was very formulaic and had been done before, but it was still a decent read. I felt like there were some loose ends but it may have cheapened the story a little to tie them up.


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41/100

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wanted to read this book because it was about the Plague, and for whatever reason, I find that really interesting. The beginning was a bit hard to get into, but the story of one woman who loses everyone, and a town's hysteria was intriguing. It had the potential to be slow at times, but really wasn't. As expected, there were many heartbreaking moments.


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