Book Title: Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot
Authors: Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
Version: Hardback
ISBN: 9780805096668
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Published: October 2nd, 2012
Number of Pages: 336
Genre: 'Non-Fic'
REVIEW: If you have ever sat even semi-consciously in a US history class or were born after 1950 you know who John Fitzgerald Kennedy was. He was, in most respects, the hope of a generation. Since the story of who the Kennedy's were and the utter devastation that spread throughout the country when he was assassinated, I felt that I could skip the synopsis part and move straight to my review.
Now I am going to preface this by saying that I am in no way a Kennedy expert, I haven't even done all that much research on them. But I have read a few books about them, and done a bit of research so I know a tiny bit. I am in all honesty morbidly fascinated by the whole Kennedy tragedy. And so because I am curious about all things Kennedy I picked this bestseller up out of pure curiosity. Believe me a lot of people were surprised that I was reading it. Mr. O'Reilly is well known for his now infamous book "Killing Lincoln," which turned out to be a good bit of fiction when it was supposed to be non-fiction. So when I told people that I was reading "Killing Kennedy" I got a lot of raised eyebrows in response. But I was curious, I couldn't help it.
This was an excellent piece of humor. I laughed for a good chunk of it. The problem with that? This wasn't supposed to be funny in any way. But I ended up laughing so hard at some points that I had tears in my eyes and my roommate had to ask if I was doing ok. The thing with this is was it wasn't written well at all and the laughter was from what was said rather than how it was said. Again this wasn't supposed to be a funny book. As an example he went on and on about how many affairs Kennedy had. Sure we know that Kennedy had affairs but the way that O'Reilly described it was as if Kennedy couldn't last long without sleeping with a woman who was most decidedly not his wife.
After reading what turned out to be a poorly written farce about what happened during the years Kennedy was in office and all the events leading up to his assassination, I was in a Kennedy mood and decided to try watching the show "The Kennedys." Now this show was deemed so historically inaccurate that it wasn't allowed to air on the History Channel. The more I watched it the more it seemed familiar to me. Then it hit me, I felt as if I was rereading "Killing Kennedy." I swear I felt such a sense of deja vu that I thought to myself 'ah here is where Bill O'Reilly did his research.' Or more to the point it was as if he took the show and turned it into a book.
I found that this was a poorly written, poorly researched 'history' book. Of course I wasn't really expecting a lot from this particular book so it wasn't that much of a let down. This is one of those books that you can skip and not worry about it. I don't mean to be rude or petty but this is how I feel about this book. And I did promise to always be as honest as possible.
Book Title: Sad Desk Salad
Author: Jessica Grose
Version: ebook
ISBN: 978006218839
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Published: October 2, 2012
Number of Pages: 304
Genre: Fiction (Most likely 'chick-lit')
SYNOPSIS: Alex Lyons pretty much has just about everything she ever wanted. A cute, on-his-way-to-being-a-huge-success boyfriend, an apartment that is tiny and dingy and that they both love in the city of her dreams, New York, and a job that is right up her alley. Or so she believes. She is an assistant editor on an increasingly popular website called Chick Habit. Basically she gets paid to write on a daily basis, the more hits the better for her career and the bitchier she is the more hits she gets. Despite the fact that she hasn't showered, seen more than the bodega across the street or changed out of the poncho she's been wearing for days on end everything seems to be going great.
As things begin to get more and more tense with her boss demanding more and more page views Alex begins looking for whatever dirt she can on anyone. When she receives an anonymous email with a video featuring the daughter of a very prominent celebrity who is running for office. In the video this young lady is not only scantily clad but also engaging in illegal activities. Alex is suddenly pushed between a rock with shards sticking out of it and a hard place that is slowly closing in. She knows that posting the video would be Chick Habit gold but is she willing to risk ruining this young girl's life just to get a higher number of page views?
The more Alex weighs her options, eventually getting pushed into it, the more she starts to lose sight of what is important in life. She begins staying out all night, ignoring her amazing boyfriend, even ignoring her fabulous mother and generally letting her life crumble around her. But her job life is becoming more and more fantastic, and the question that Alex has to ask herself is which is more important, her job or her sanity?
REVIEW: I don't read chick-lit all that often and now I remember why. Maybe it's just me and my tastes run more towards something with more meat but this was really pretty bad. I mean I read it because I thought that the story sounded interesting and as a blogger my curiosity was peaked. I'm not going to say that it was a bad book but it wasn't necessarily a good book either. I found it lacking, a lot.
The writing was pedestrian and the story wasn't good enough to make up for it. All around the book was not so much a disappointment as it wasn't worth being disappointed in. I guess I'm just not much for this genre because although I read it all the way through I was bored and felt that even the main character was too annoying to care about. There wasn't much to root for through out the book and I feel that with a book such as this you have to have something or someone to root for.
I don't really have that much else to say about the book. I didn't really like it and felt that all around it was boring and eventually not worth it. I say with this one it is ok to skip it and find yourself a different book, maybe one that has a slightly better story or is written better. Maybe even one that has a cast of characters that you want to root for. It's a shame because I think that every once in a while a fun light-hearted book is a great read. This one was just not that unfortunately.
Book Title: The Passage
Author: Justin Cronin
Version: ebook
ISBN: 9780345516862
Published: June 8th, 2010
First Published: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Number of Pages: 858
Genre: Dystopian Fiction
REVIEW: This was a long book and a lot happened in it. So much so that I'm not sure what it is that I want to write about and what I want to leave out. With that in mind I am going to skip the synopsis altogether and move on to the review. It was an interesting book, one that I found myself enjoying quite a bit. It had a lot of different flavors mixed in that I enjoyed pulling apart. I felt that it was maybe a tad long for what it was but I enjoyed the richness and fullness of the story.
Justin Cronin's writing was strangely simple but in a good way. There was no overreaching, no trying to get fancier than it was. I enjoyed that aspect of it because although it was simple it was really well done. And the most important part of it was the story was well told. When it comes to a long book the story has to be well told in order for the length to be worth it and this was told very well. For me a great story has to be equal parts character development, description and action, this was a good story in that it had mostly equal parts of everything. The way Mr. Cronin told his story was very well done and I enjoyed it from start to finish.
I found that some of the pieces of the story were familiar to me in the sense that they evoked other works. This was one small negative for me. As much as I enjoyed the story and ultimately the whole book I found myself wishing more of it was a surprise, I don't mean that the plot wasn't new or surprising in a lot of ways, I mean simply that parts of it were exactly like other stories, so much so that I found myself losing what I was reading and instead thinking about what I was reminded of. Other than these few occurances however I have very little to complain about.
Each of the characters, and there were quite a few, were very explicitly described. Even if the characters didn't last very long through out the story they were so full, so rich, so real that even if I only knew them for a little while I found myself fully invested in what happened to them. I really liked that part of the book, that Mr. Cronin took the time to really flesh out his characters no matter how big or small.
All around "The Passage" by Justin Cronin was a really good book. I have the advance of the second in the trilogy "The Twelve" and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next. Justin Cronin has created a world that I really enjoyed spending time in, and it's a world I am anxious to get back to. I look forward to seeing what the next part of this journey is going to be like and I just know that if you go out and pick up "The Passage" you'll get just as wonderfully wrapped up as I did.
Published: October 2nd, 2012
