All the Books.

"Red Rising by Pierce Brown is an epic and gritty space opera that follows Darrow and his attempt to make the last words of his wife, "break the chains", a reality. He will be the hammer that shatters their golden shackles. The first test is surviving the Institute, a school where the best and brightest of the Aureate, the Golds children go to prove their merit. And Darrow knows he must win but nothing prepares him for the trials he'll face, the choices he'll make or the friendships he'll form. This is my third read and the series just keeps getting better."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Pros - A cast of truly likable characters and all for different reasons/Sevro, the quiet, keenly observant, loner/Roque, the gentle poet/Cassius, arrogant but charming/Darrow's guilt at their friendship is truly heartbreaking at times/The idea of colors was an interesting catch, Reds, Pinks, Blues, Greens and the most powerful Golds.  Cons - The 12 Houses of the Roman Pantheon in the Inst...

"It's so easy to jump into Tolkien's Middle-Earth and accompany Bilbo on his epic quest. The tried and true "Hero's Journey" structure shows the Hobbit going from a quiet and polite Gentleman to a quick-witted and salty little Burglar. A good re-read and re-introduction to Tolkien's sometimes hefty descriptions."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Tolkien does have an undeniable wit to his writing/Gandalf is one salty B****.  Cons: The 13 Dwarves and trying to keep them all straight/Though it helped created depth to Middle-Earth, the whole, Thor, of Thrain of Thror King Under the Mountain, title dropping got really, really old.  Full Review: Bilbo Baggins, a comfortably wealthy and polite Hobbit is enjoying his morning pipe when an old man in a gray cloak, holding a walking stick stops at his door, quite unexpectedly. Bilbo wishes him a good morning, as is courteous and the old man proceeds to ask him all sorts of questions, as to why this morning should be good. The conve...

"Reminiscent of Go Ask Alice, we see Charlie's life through the form of letters written to an anonymous friend. And akin to Go Ask Alice  it had a curb-ball in there that completely blindsided me. I can see why it's a modern classic because there were some truly quotable moments but overall I was generally underwhelmed."  ⭐⭐ Pros:  Chbosky's truth about how we all have an ending, it's up to us whether it's good or bad, definitely stuck.  Cons:  Charlie’s awkwardness is painful/It took awhile for me to get used to the flow of seeing Charlie's life through the letters/Charlie came off as flat and emotionless though all he seemed to do was cry/That plot twist 3/4s of the way through the book hit me completely by surprise.   Full Review:  Charlie is quiet and observant. The book is told in the form of letters to an anonymous person that Charlie was told was "nice and would listen." And he goes on to start the story of his life, when he was in Mid...

"Though the idea seemed ridiculous, once I got into the plot, I was impressed with Grahame-Smith's blending of fiction and non-fiction and his unique take on the tried-and-true subject of Vampires."   ⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  Grahame-Smith tackled the topic of Vampires and their history in an original and subtle way.  Cons:  The ending, to me, had a giant loophole that they didn't close. Perhaps you're just supposed to accept it and enjoy it, which I did but at the same time, it left me wondering.  Full Review: Smith is simply going through the motions. He works in his Father in Laws store and plays around with the idea of one day actually finishing that novel but, for the most part, he's just getting through the days. His days are filled with clientele coming in to comment on how quaint and cute the small-town country store is but there's one customer, a regular, that's always stood out to Grahame-Smith.  He's quiet, buys the same things and pays in cash and Sm...

"Murderbot, a Security Unit assigned to a survey team on an unnamed planet just wants to watch his programs and be left alone. But when things start to go weird and people start dying around him, well, he has to do the job he's been contracted to do. It's never that simple though and he's begrudgingly dragged into a life or death struggle. It had potential but unfortunately in the end it fell a little flat."  ⭐⭐ Pros : I liked and related to how Murderbot just wanted to sit and watch his "programs" all day but work kept getting in the way.  Cons : Everything was very surface level, even Murderbots own feelings, it all felt rather shallow/The motive didn't feel strong enough. I feel like since it was a novella there wasn't enough time for real character growth.  Full Review :  Murderbot is an organic/mechanical Security Unit (SecUnit) assigned to a team of surveyors on an unnamed planet in the middle of God knows where. SecUnit doesn't know an...

"Yochanan Rivlin is the "Rabbit" Angstrom of Near Eastern Studies at Haifa University. A passionate but flawed man, unable to let go of things. Especially why his sons marriage dissolved after only a year, with no explanation. He goes off in search of answers and stumbles into one misadventure after another. Yehoshu caught me with Ofer and Galya's story but the subplot of Samaer's term paper and Rivlin's job as a professor was boring enough to almost DNF this one a couple of times."  ⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  Honestly, I was as curious to find out why Ofer's wedding ended as Rivlin was. Yehoshua managed to hook me with the letter from Ofer to Galya, just as I was thinking of DNFing it cause it might be boring, he threw that at me and it worked/Hagit was a good but never heeded voice of reason.  Cons:  Rivlin is a very selfish man, very similar to "Rabbit" Harry Angstrom from the series by John Updike/He's a bit of a blithering idiot who gets what he d...