Please redirect your browsers to www.silverthoughts2.wordpress.com for future book reviews. Thank you and see you there!

Spinning by Michael Baron

From Good Reads: Dylan Hunter has it made. At 29, he has great friends, a huge job, all the women he can handle, and no commitments. A public relations executive, Dylan has dashed up the ladder of success by mastering the art of the spin – bending the truth to his and his clients’ needs. But when a former lover steps back into his life with a three-year-old girl by her side (no, she’s not his), Dylan suddenly finds himself in a place he can’t spin himself out of. And when Dylan unexpectedly becomes the child’s sole guardian, he finds himself to be like a circus performer trying to keep all of his spinning plates from crashing to the ground. In what seems like a blink of the eye, Dylan Hunter’s life has changed completely…whether he’s ready for it or not.

Alternately humorous and poignant, romantic and tragic, playful and dramatic, Spinning is the kind of wise, touching, emotion-packed novel readers have come to expect from Michael Baron.

Despite lukewarm reviews, I was a pretty big fan of Michael Baron's novel, When You Went Away. Despite not so great writing-Baron did have an uncanny knack for story telling and once I started Spinning, I could not wait to be spun quickly into Dylan's life. Sadly though, that never happened. I found Spinning to be poorly written, dull, and frankly, cliched. A few times it seemed like something was going to turn around and that kept me reading...only to be disappointed again and again.

I wish I could say that this novel did have some kind redeeming factor that allowed me to continue reading to the end, but it didn't. I did finish, mainly because once I realized that this book was going nowhere I was already too far in to give up but I definitely would not recommend this book. Even if it was a freebie on Kindle.

Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts

Cover of Made in the U.S.A.From Good Reads: Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father. While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.

MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.

This is not a new title to me. I was first introduced to Made in the U.S.A. back in 2009 when I picked up the audiobook version of this title to listen to during a long car trip. I enjoyed listening to this title so much, that I knew that eventually, I wanted to read it as well.

One of biggest reasons I wanted to return to this book was because of the characters. Much like Where the Heart Is (a favorite of mine), Lutie, Fate, and Juan has stuck with me over the years-Just as Novalee Nation still does. I knew that these were characters that I needed to revisit. I wanted some reassurance that they really did exist, albeit in novel form. In that regard, I was not disappointed. I liked them as much in written form as I did listening to their story.

However, upon reading this novel, as opposed to merely listening, I was struck by how fast paced it really was. In the space of 300 or so pages, Lutie and Fate go from Spearfish, South Dakota, to Las Vegas Nevada and on to Hugo, Oklahoma. It would seem that this novel should be much longer...especially the childrens' stay in Las Vegas. There is a lot that happens to them while they are in Las Vegas, yet, as I was reading the novel it felt as though that part of the book was rushed and most likely the reason I gave this novel four stars rather than five.

Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand

Image via WikipediaFrom Good Reads: Det. Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out. But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight--the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter.

With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.

I finished this book about two weeks ago, and I do remember enjoying this book but two weeks after finishing it I can't really remember what made this book a good one, rather than just an okay book. I guess it was because the mystery portion of this book was compelling enough to propel this story forward...though, the secondary plot started out too vague and then resolved entirely too quickly.

I do remember feeling kind of hesitant about reading this book as it was labeled Christian Fiction...however I didn't pick up on a Christian theme at all. There was a few biblical quotes that were thrown around every once in awhile and some of the characters were Christian but that's about as far as it went. The book was kind of tame, compared to other crime dramas, so it would be an ideal read for someone who is doesn't care to read overly gory or sexualized crime novels but I wouldn't let the Christian fiction label turn anyone off.

I'm looking forward to other novels in the Roland March series.

Post Grad by Emily Cassel

Cover of Post GradFrom Good Reads: Ryden Malby had a plan. Step One: do well in high school, thereby achieving Step Two: get a kick-butt college scholarship. Step Three – limit her beer pong in order to keep said scholarship – wasn’t always easy. Now that she’s finally graduated, it’s time for Step Four: moving to LA to land her dream job at the city’s best publishing house. So far, Ryden’s three-for-three, but she’s about to stumble on Step Four….

When Jessica Bard, Ryden’s college nemesis—the prettiest, smartest, most ambitious girl at school—steals her perfect job, Ryden’s forced to move back to her childhood home in the Valley. Stuck with her eccentric family – a karate-obsessed dad, a politically incorrect grandma, a spoiled-brat little brother – and a growing stack of rejected job applications, Ryden starts to feel like she’s going nowhere. The only upside is spending time with her best friend Adam—and running into her hot next-door neighbor David. But if Ryden’s going to survive life as a post-grad, it may be time to come up with a new plan…

Buying this book was a mistake...usually when I am shopping online I am careful about noticing little details such as "a novel based on the screen play"...but this time I guess I missed that little detail. So when I finally got the book in the mail and saw that phrase embossed across the front I instantly regretted my purchase. A trip over to Good Reads to read over the reviews didn't help. Nearly across the board people gave this "novel" a poor reviews.

But being a glutton for punishment, I decided to forge through and read it. And yeah, it wasn't all that great. It was predictable and with one exception, I hated every single character in this book, especially Ryden. Oh god, did I want her to choke on the smog of Los Angeles.

But it wasn't a total loss. It was pretty funny in parts. I think that the movie version wouldn't be half bad to watch...and I actually really loved Ryden's little brother. He was such a strange little kid that you just couldn't help but love him.

Way Behind

If you have been keeping up with me on Good Reads, you'll probably notice that I'm about five books behind in reviews. It's been a crazy two weeks, between traveling, Hurricane Irene and a death in the family. Oh, and work. Can't forget about that...but hopefully I'll find time to write at least a small review on the books that I've finished during that two week time period!

Two Books

In the past two days I managed to finish off both books I was reading, More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea by Tom Reynolds and Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup.

More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea by Tom Reynolds

From Good Reads: Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood, and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and witness the last moments of a dying man in the afternoon. He deals with road accidents, knife attacks, domestic violence, drug overdoses, neglect, and suffering. And you think you’re having a bad day at work? Tom blogs about his experiences at the end of each shift. His Random Acts of Reality website has a huge following with more than 30,000 visitors every day. Here, Tom charts the past two years of his life as an ambulance worker. He is tired, he is frustrated, and he is more pissed off than ever but he still manages to capture the more moving, heartwarming, and inspirational moments alongside the chaos.

I enjoyed this read, though, I wasn't enthralled by it. It was a nice little read for times when you are trying to kill a few extra minutes here and there but to sit for hours and read? It stretched my patience a bit. At times it was repetitive. Of course that's the nature of the job...but it did become slightly tedious. Still, it was interesting to read about a profession that I was not familiar with and it did make me appreciate these guys even more than I already did.

Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup

From Book List: Swarup's inventive debut traces the fortunes of Ram Mohammad Thomas from "Asia's biggest slum" to his sudden acquisition of enormous wealth as the biggest winner on the popular quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? A poor, uneducated waiter, Ram is arrested after the final episode in the belief that he must have cheated. In jail he shares his hardscrabble life with his lawyer: his abandonment at birth in a used clothing bin, the church orphanage where he was dubbed an "idiot orphan boy," the foster home where children were purposely crippled and forced to beg, the estate of an Australian diplomat who was really a spy, the home of an aging Bollywood actress, and his meager waiter job. Each chapter in Ram's life provided him with a correct answer on the show, as a la Forrest Gump, he has been in the right place at the right time. Ram's funny and poignant odyssey explores the causes of good and evil and illustrates how, with a little luck, the best man sometimes wins.

I wasn't crazy about the movie version of Slumdog Millionaire and I probably would have never picked up this novel, but I was promised that it would be a worthwhile read...and guess what? It was. From the minute I met Ram Mohammed Thomas, I wanted to here his story. I greedily read through this book, lapping up Ram's life story and finding my emotions churned between happy, heartbroken and afraid for him.

At times, this story does chronologically become a bit confusing. Ram's flashbacks span across 18 years and at least three different parts of India and at times I wasn't sure if I were reading about Ram as a child, or a teenager, but it was just a mild distraction to what was a really enjoyable read.

In fact, I may just attempt the watch the movie again in hopes that this time it'll make more sense.