Book Review: The First Horror by RL Stine

The First Horror
by RL Stine

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil #1
Release Date: 1 August 1994
ISBN: 0671885626

Format: Paperback
Pages: 148
Genre: YA/Horror
Time to read: 2 hours
Source: Craiglist
aStore Link (Real Book): The First Horror
aStore Link (Kindle Book): The First Horror




Summary
(source: Goodreads)

The Scariest Address of All

Twin sisters Cally and Kody Frasier aren’t thrilled that their family has moved to Fear Street. They’ve heard the strange stories. They know about the centuries of nightmarish terror. But what they don't know is that they’ve moved into the one house that even their neighbors on Fear Street are afraid to enter. The house that has stood mysteriously empty for the past thirty years. They moved to 99 Fear Street.

Now they must learn the secret of 99 Fear Street or they will become the next victims of the house of evil.

My Reaction


Having grown up with and only ever read Stine's Goosebumps series, I was completely surprised by the writing style in this first of the 99 Fear Street: House of Evil series. I had no idea the author of the light-hearted spooky stories that enthralled me as a preteen was capable of such horrifying imagery and downright terrifying undertones as I just discovered as an adult in this book. I'm a bit regretful that I put off reading his non-Goosebumps tales for so long.

This book still had a lot of the same elements one comes to expect from Stine's voice: unfulfilling end-of-chapter cliffhangers, references to brand names, faulty leaps of logic, et al. But unlike what I'm used to, there's an actual romantic story arc and a point at which I thought I knew where the story was headed, but then it went so much farther.

I simply have to find the other two books in this series. Though some references are a little dated reading them now, once I grew accustomed to the setting, I was sucked right into this story.

For more information on this book:

Amazon  |  Kindle

2015 Blog in Review

2015 is in the books, and I (surprisingly) was a bit more into the books this year than last. This despite becoming a tax preparer as a second job and doing all the other things I did that at this point I don't remember. But it was a busy year, indeed.

One of my most exciting adventures this year, though, was taking our son to the library for the very first time and getting his own library card! He absolutely loves going, and we try to go every two weeks on Fridays when I'm typically off work. Apparently reading the books to him and being in the library regularly has similarly stimulated my reading fervor a bit more, so I feel like I've read more in latter 2015 than the years coming up to it.

Another exciting development was beginning to teach the five-year-old how to read beginning around October using the aptly named Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I found this on Amazon at some point and kind of held onto to it until I could get a feel of when he was ready to start learning. I must have hit it right at the right time, because we got through it pretty quickly and caught on to a lot of things fast. We had anticipated completing it by the end of 2015, but holidays, two weeks of sickness, and a week of winter VBS got in the way. However, we should be finished in about a week now and ready to grow into newer reading lessons from there.

Back to the blog, I wrote last year that I had not found a routine that works for me in reading, reviewing, blogging, etc. I've been frustrated the past few years of trying, and I think that's because I don't have a lot of time it seems. Also, I always seem to be heavy into it until about February and then I don't get back into it again til the next January. And here we are.

Instead of getting frustrated this time, though, I'm just going to do what I can when I can do it. This is mostly just an exercise in writing and putting my voice out there to the random people who land on these pages from Google. :)

I still can't review a book to save my life.

In tracking my reading on GoodReads this year, I included all the books I read to the boy for records' sake, but I didn't include it in my reading accomplishments. I'm sure there's a challenge out there for which all of those books would qualify.

Finally, I failed reading the Bible in a year, even worse than last year. I credit this to working in the evenings as a tax preparer through the end of tax season. The same thing will happen this year as I attempt to make extra money to pay off some stuff, which is going swimmingly by the way. I didn't even attempt starting the Bible in a Year for this year because I knew I'd get derailed when tax season begins (which should be soon).

Challenge Updates:

• Bible in a Year: I read 182 out of 1189 chapters, which is only 15.3% of the entire Bible. I made it to 25.7% in 2014.
• 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge: I read 10 out of 26 authors (not counting the child's books). That's actually pretty good for me. :) I only reviewed 6 of those.
• 2015 eBook Reading Challenge: I actually read 6 eBooks to just exceed my goal of 5! Of course I only reviewed 1/2 of them.

I may forgo challenges this year for lack of time. However 2017 I should hopefully have more time to pay more attention to what I read. And maybe I'll find a challenge I can actually do this year. I want to jump on that bandwagon so hard.

LeviSamJuno

Book Review: Binary by John Lange

Binary
by John Lange

Publisher: Bantam Books
Release Date: March 1972
ISBN: 5530761812
ASIN: B00DEU9GYE
Format: Paperback
Pages: 172
Genre: Thriller
Time to read: 4 hours
Source: PaperbackSwap.com
aStore Link (Real Book): Binary
aStore Link (Kindle Book): Binary

Summary
(from GoodReads)

Political radical John Wright is plotting an act of mass destruction – and federal agent John Graves has him under surveillance, trying to figure out what the plot is.

When a government computer is hacked and a high-security shipment of nerve gas gets hijacked, Graves puts the pieces together – but can he stop Wright from unleashing his weapon before it kills a million people ... including the President of the United States?

My Reaction

I had read Binary in February 2013 after I was so excited to receive from a user at PaperBackSwap.com.  I had a format of a review ready for it, but I never finished it. So, I decided to re-read it to fill up some of my reading this year because, just maybe, reading something I had read before would speed up my reading, which would in turn make me want to read more often.

I certainly sped through this book written under a pseudonym by Michael Crichton. My initial review when I read it two years ago was that it was written kind of hastily, and seeing as how Crichton wrote it while finishing his medical degree, it probably was. This time around it felt really well paced. I especially enjoyed getting an early glimpse of what would become Crichton's signature style, in particular the prologue written with the factual and formal sound of a court summary detailing the specifics of a case after the collection of all evidence and testimony.

Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

Hard Case Crime (Current Publisher)

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

Book Review: Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell

Fatal Debt
by Dorothy Howell


Publisher: Dorothy Howell
Release Date: 21 February 2013
ISBN: 9780985693015
ASIN: B00BKSKKEC
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 202
Genre: Mystery
Time to read: 4.5 hours
Source: Amazon (Free at the time)
aStore Link (Real Book): Fatal Debt
aStore Link (Kindle Book): Fatal Debt










Summary
(from Goodreads)

Dana Mackenzie finds herself working for a faceless financial institution — it's either this or piercing ears at the mall — and while she's grateful for a job, she has no intentions of following the corporate offices' heartless orders.

When she's instructed to repossess a 42-inch Sony television from an elderly couple, Dana intends to put her own twist on the assignment. But upon arriving at their run down house in a gang infested neighborhood, she's horrified to find sweet old Mr. Sullivan murdered.

The homicide detective investigating the case is Nick Travis, Dana's high school crush. Sparks ignite, but a dark secret threatens to keep them apart — unless Nick comes clean about the past.

Dana agrees to help Mr. Sullivan's grieving family locate his grandson, a guy with a surprising new lifestyle who's been missing since the day of the murder. Her good intentions put her in the thick of the murder investigation and on a collision course with the killer.

My Reaction

I must have hit a spell of free cozy mysteries on Amazon: this is the third one I've read in a row. I still have no idea what the actual definition of a cozy mystery is, but this seems like it fits whatever schema I have in my head for it. I tend to save these ebooks for when I'm on the treadmill in the wee morning hours before work, and this particular one made me want to stay on the machine longer just to finish the chapter.

Fatal Debt features an amateur sleuth with a profession I do not think I ever would have conceived of reading about with interest, let alone considered it to work well within a mystery novella; but, here we are. Dana MacKenzie works for a payday loan service office, or something to the effect of where the business gives personal loans to people who really cannot afford to pay for what they are buying. Dave Ramsey considers this particular business to be the lowest of the bottom feeders in the financial industry.

My financial digression aside, Howell really pulled me into this book with the nontraditional career perspective Dana has. It also opened my eyes to the fact that, although I deride the whole concept of the business of preying on the financially inept, that the people that work for them are just that: people--with feelings, sympathy, and good intentions (for the most part). Dana bends over backwards for a lot of her clients who are just in a monetary rut and need a little more time to pay back their loans; meanwhile, she exacts a bit of personal justice on those who simply do not pay. These latter moments really gave me that chill of enjoyment from seeing justice being served.

I probably would have found the thought of a loan officer and her office minutia to be boring, but Howell balanced her descriptions of the mundane interactions with office coworkers and clientele with the fun part of the job in a way a lot of office workers (myself included) can identify with. After finding herself mixed in the murder investigation, Dana uses her work's connections to speed up the progress by using her ability to do background checks, financial reports, and asset collection to narrow down the suspects and try to find out motive. 

Of course, a few of the downsides of this particular book (as there are with many ebooks) greatly deal with the need for a copyeditor. I'm not a grammar prude (okay, maybe I am), but I do get taken out of the story when I come across words that SpellCheck missed that are technically words but do not fit in the progression of the sentence. I think it just needed another pair of eyes on it to pick out some easy-to-miss flaws.

Story-wise, Dana is an interesting character but not one I would typically consider identifying with. She is a bit brash and, particularly from her interactions with her coworkers, seems to be the office mate I would try to avoid; but then, her coworkers also gave me that impression. The stereotype of mostly female inter-office relationships being a haven of jealousy and backbiting applies here. 

Also, her interactions with detective Nick, the guy she hates mentally but lusts for physically, seemed to be forcing itself toward a relationship because that's the way these books are supposed to end. I couldn't tell how old Dana was supposed to be (probably late 20's, early 30's?) but when it came to Nick she was evidently 14. That might be the way women actually be mentally around guys they like, but in reading I found it immature and probably skimmed those parts to get to the real meat of this book, which was the investigation and whether Dana was going to get herself killed.

Fatal Debt was the first in the series featuring Dana MacKenzie; book two is called Fatal Luck. I think I have to read the next one simply to answer the question about Nick's high school incident that was ever-present and continuously popping up throughout the story.



Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge, 2015 eBook Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge

Duration: 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015

Host: Samantha-Lin.com
Challenge Rules and Sign-Up Page

The Challenge: Read an Author for each letter of the alphabet.

This one allows re-reads and crossovers with other challenges, so I might be able to accomplish this one, I hope.

• A - 
• B - Borgford, Brian: Pepper
• C - Carline, Gayle: Freezer Burn
• D - 
• E - 
• F - 
• G - 
• H - Howell, Dorotohy: Fatal Debt
• I - 
• J - 
• K - Kenyon, Nate: The Bone Factory
• L - Lange, John: Binary
• M - Myers, Tim: Room for Murder
• N - 
• O - 
• P - Paterson, Jill: The Celtic Dagger
• Q - 
• R - Rand, Johnathan: Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota
• S - Swanson, Cidney: Rippler
• T - 
• U - 
• V - 
• W - Wullert, Mark: The Stolen Adventure
• X - 
• Y - 
• Z - 

Conclusion: I actually ended up reading more books than I really anticipated. Having some ebooks for exercising and taking our child to the library for the first time and reading to him seemed to have helped increase my reading capacity, though not to the point of successfully completing my goal. (I mean, I read most of the boy's library books to him, and if I counted those I might have made it; but I won't count those as most of them were fewer than 20 pages.)

Book Review: The Celtic Dagger by Jill Paterson

The Celtic Dagger
by Jill Paterson


Publisher: Jill Henderson
Release Date: 14 October 2012
ASIN: B009QTC28E
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 208
Genre: Mystery
Time to read: 4 hours
Source: Amazon (Free at the time) [20 October 2014]
aStore Link (Real Book): The Celtic Dagger
aStore Link (Kindle Book): The Celtic Dagger

Summary
(Goodreads)

University professor Alex Wearing is found murdered in his study by the Post Graduate Co-coordinator, Vera Trenbath, a nosey interfering busybody. Assigned to the case is Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn. Fitzjohn is a detective from the old guard, whose methodical, painstaking methods are viewed by some as archaic. His relentless pursuit for the killer zeros in on Alex’s brother, James, as a key suspect in his investigation.

Compelled to clear himself of suspicion, James starts his own investigation and finds himself immersed in a web of intrigue, ultimately uncovering long hidden secrets about his brother’s life that could easily be the very reasons he was murdered.

This gripping tale of murder and suspense winds its way through the university’s hallowed halls to emerge into the beautiful, yet unpredictable, Blue Mountain region where more challenges and obstacles await James in his quest to clear himself of suspicion and uncover the truth about his brother.

My Reaction

I started reading this book to pass the time on the treadmill in the wee early morning hours that I have available to go to the gym. Then there were freezing warnings and I started a second job so I really didn't have to time to get back to the gym or pick up where I left off. But it was easy to start from my last save-point to finish this story that had me guessing until the end.

When I downloaded the book from Amazon, it said it was the first in the Fitzjohn Mystery series (Fitzjohn being the detective with a mouthful of a title: Detective Chief Inspector), but I found it odd that for a series bearing his name he barely featured in it. While I was reading, Alex Wearing was clearly the main character. It wasn't until I began writing my review that I found the note on the author's website that this story began as a stand-alone, and only later did the interesting Fitzjohn become a serial character. Still, that point did not really distract me while reading.

There are two things I love within this tale: Australia and academia-related things, and Wearing as a professor in Sydney combined with his travels to several other names I've heard about but have never experienced were fun for me. I don't believe I've read anything taking place in Australia before, and because much of the story takes place between May and August, it was a bit mind-stretching to remember that the setting is winter for the characters.

I loved that the artefacts from the museum were key in the murder and investigation. The way Paterson weaved them all together with the storylines and relationships of each character made everything believable. My only real disappointments in the book were the several proofreading errors (including some liberal use of commas in places that made phrasing difficult in my head) which seem to plague many of these free ebooks I find on Amazon. Then there was a rather pivotal action scene that seemed written too quickly, though it also gave the feeling that one might feel in that situation when so much is going on that it passes by so fast you don't know what really happened. So I guess I'm a bit ambiguously disappointed there rather.

I think The Celtic Dagger probably classifies as a Cozy Mystery, but I also enjoyed the brief look into Australian syntax, culture, and bit of geography as well.

Reading Challenges: 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge, 2015 eBook Reading Challenge

For more information on this book:

Author's Website

Amazon  |  Kindle

2015 eBook Reading Challenge

Duration: 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015

Host: Annette's Book Spot
Challenge Rules and Sign-Up Page

The Challenge: Read your ebooks, especially the ones you've accumulated over time.

This challenge has 6 levels ranging from 5 to 100 ebooks. I had attempted an ebook challenge once before on my older blog, but that was the year our boy was born so I found myself without a lot of time to do anything.

Like last time, I thought I'd start out small, so I'm attempting the lowest level of the challenge.

My Level: Bits (Read 5 ebooks)

1. Freezer Burn by Gayle Carline
2. The Celtic Dagger by Jill Paterson
3. Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell
4. Rippler by Cidney Swanson
5. The Stolen Adventure by Mark Wullert
6. Keeping Mum: Long Weekend by Perrin Briar

Conclusion: Hey! I actually completed (and barely exceeded) a challenge! I didn't do very well at the reviewing part of it. I really don't know how other bloggers do it. It takes me a few days to even process how I felt about a book I read, and by then I'm trying to start a new book or getting off track of even reading at all because of all the other stuff I have to do.

Anyway, maybe I'll try again next time and get farther.