Out of my Comfort Zone

The book I read  that took me out of my comfort zone was Something Like Normal by Trish Doller. I decided to read this novel because normally the stories I choose to read involve sports, war, or something historical, but I decided it was time to jump into the romance aspect of novels. Now normally I wouldn't even consider reading a romance novel, I'm not into the whole ooey gooey lovey dovey type novels. But actually this novel was surprisingly good, there wasn't too much lovey dovey stuff, but rather a heart warming coming together of two unlikely people. Travis and Harper are our two main characthers, Travis has just returned home from Afghanistan and is having a really tough time assimilating back into socety, his ex girlfriend is now sleeping with his brother, and all of his old friends he now has grown apart from. Everywhere Travis now goes he is haunted by the ghost of his buddy from combat, as he tries to down these nightmarish visions away he sees Harper. She wants nothing to do with him at first, but as they continue to meet at various places, she starts to like him and eventually they fall in love. This story really was not one of my first choices on a book that I would bring on an island at first glance, but after reading it I fell in love with it. I was very glad I read this novel and look forward to reading more.

Orphan Train

Orphan Train to me wasn't all it is cracked up to be. First off having multiple characters that overlap and have similarities is a great idea, but the shifting narratives and perspective really jumbled my mind. It was difficult to decipher and remember where I had left off. Secondly the book was too slow, the action never really picked up making it difficult for me to get into the story. The problems with slower moving books for myself is it makes it very challenging to have motivation to keep reading. It makes it very very hard to continue and power thru the book.  What I did enjoy was finding out how much effort she actually put into the book, really nailing down her research and making sure the story as a whole was factual. I also enjoyed living the experience of these trains with he girls and getting a feeling for just how difficult life back then really was. The book gives yo very good inklings to just how hard and scary it was. Being anywhere from 1-12 and getting put on a train to live with a new family no thank you. I did not enjoy this book, rather I enjoyed the thought and history the book brought, and all the dedication the author put into this. I would love to read some of her other work because unfortunately Orphan train just was not for me.  The book lacked structure and was all over the place jumping from person to person, and characters receiving new names. I hope her next book impresses me.

My favorite genre is suspense thriller, over the past week or so, me, and a couple of group members read and discussed the girl on the train, a top selling suspense thriller novel. The thriller and suspense genre is intended to lurch out and keep you guessing on the edge of your seat with multiple twits and turns. The genre has been around since ancient BC times used in epic poems. The genre has always captured my attention, always kept me involved in the story, and definitely deepened my appreciation for reading.

One of my favorite suspense/ thriller Authors would easily be Michael Connely, he has captured me in the whole detective series with Detective Bosch. They really drew me in, I was constantly trying to figure out who had committed the crime. As the book eloped me further and further I felt like I was in the story right along side with these characters. Connely had a great plot as well as story structure, the novel was a complete success and left me wanting to read more. Books like this are why I love the suspense genre because they really capture you and put you into another world. One of my Favorite suspense and thriller books was one I read this past summer, Geralds Game written by Stephan King. Geralds game leaves you hanging literally, our main character is hand cuffed to the bed after accidentally murdering her husband. She starts to go insane and slowly hears people entering the house, shoes slowly hitting the hard wood stairs. Who is it? You will have to read to find out. Gerald's game is a great book, a little slow in the beggening with some romance and their trip to Oregon, but picks up as soon as they get to the house. I love the genre because it always leaves me wanting more and never fails to pull me in.

Butter by Erin Jade Lange in my opinion was a very tough read for me. I found the book to be very annoying as in the beginning we felt pity for our main character, Marshall AKA Butter, but as the story progresses we learn to hate him. The book was tough for me to read because the story line was very bizarre. The whole idea of someone feeling so bad about themselves to a point where they want to eat themselves alive. I also found it very intriguing of how Butter judged everyone else so hard, but was secretly trying to build a relationship on lies, pretending to be someone else. The book just was not for me, it took me way beyond my comfort zone, and I did not enjoy it. The whole time while reading I kept trying to get into the book, and then I finished and was disappointed with the conclusion. I expected a more morbid and drastic ending, but instead got a happy fairy tale, everyone and everything is okay type ending. I would not recommend this to anyone, and was very unhappy with the selection.

The recommended book for me was Burning Room by MichaelConnely, the book was a thrilling tale as we follow two detectives trying to find out who the cold case murder was. I acted upon this because I am very into the whole detective series and finding out who the killer is. I also am very infatuated with Forensics Science and may pursue a career in that field.

All in all the book was very well written, It's strengths were giving very detailed character descriptions, following a good story line. The book kept me intrigued and made me want to continue reading it from start to finish.  Burning room also had some smoke and mirrors of flaws such as, hard to decipher which crime they were working on, dragged out useless parts to fill space, and back and forth dialogue sometimes getting repetitive.

I very much enjoyed Burning Room, it grabbed my attention. The main story line is a new detective, detective Sotono, is teamed up with Detective Harry Bosch, a very hard working, tough nosed, head detective. He worked his way up from the lowest ranks, now working on LA's finest cold case team. They begin working a case on a man who was shot ten years ago by a stray bullet and now has mysteriously died, its up to them to find the killer and the cause. I would rate this book a 4/5 stars as it never bored me, had very good plot and story line, interested me, and was very well written.

The type of reader who would enjoy this book is someone who can handle vulgar language, this book doesn't always keep it PG! They would have to enjoy detective story's or "who done its", and also enjoy the thrill and suspense it brings. This book is definitely worth the read, don't just take it from me, this book is also on the NY Times best sellers list with reviews raving about it. If you want action and fast paced moving page tuners, than this is for you.

The books of my life

The books of my life that truly impacted me

Hello fellow book enthuastics!!! My name is AJ and I just love to read, I throw myself and get lost in a world, where anything is imaginable. I usually attempt to read just about every night, especailly on long car rides or vacations, I take about 3-5 books with me. My favorite types of books would be, Historical Non fiction, Drama, Horror, Susnpense, fiction, and sports. I will read just about anything that peaks my interst. I am very athetltic and play sports all the time, which has further devolped my love of reading sports realted novels. I am curently in highschool, and will contuine to read. Keep flipping those pages!