Review: We Live in Water

We Live in Water by Jess Walter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful collection of stories that seem to focus on men hard on their luck, divorced, homeless. The writing was quick and concise, which is needed in these short stories. My favorite was "Anything Helps," a story of a man panhandling for money to buy a Harry Potter book for his son. In "Thief," someone is taking money from their family vacation fund jar, and he goes incognito to discover the culprit. The ending of the book are these little fun facts about Spokane, Washington, and the author kinds of shows some events that spawned some of the short stories.

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Review: Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World

Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Richard Snow was quite ambitious with this informative book. There is so much information in here, but it doesn't read like a book report. The book is laid out in chronological order, from Walt building a train set on his property, to dreaming up the park, to opening day and beyond. They created so many parts and vehicles just from ingenuity. The imagineers have big shoes to fill when Walt just tells them to figure it out.

A good book with a lot of snippets from the park. Good writing, good stories.

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Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh

5/5 stars! Amazing, high-speed courtroom adventure, involving a brilliant serial killer (who manages to get himself on the jury), and a con-man turned lawyer. There is a lot of misdirection and false "A-ha" moments to keep the reader guessing. I don't usually read courtroom books, but this one is so different and unique. Cavanaugh's writing is quick, punchy, and well-executed. There were no fluff chapters. A lot of build-up with a great payoff. I highly recommend this one! Thank you to Netgalley for this copy!

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Well, that was a journey! My legs are tired from wandering! Thanks to Netgalley and Del-Rey for the advanced copy! This book is massive in scope. It has been compared to The Stand, and in fact The Stand is name-checked in this book. Sleepwalkers are traveling as a flock to a destination for some strange reason. Family members of the sleepwalkers are walking with them to protect them, and thus becoming 'shepherds.' The world is confused and captivated by this. An epidemic is destroying and breaking humanity into factions.

There are so many topics in this book, and contemporary at that. The political nature in this book is very familiar. Global warming, AI, vaccines, neo-nazis, world religion on all sides of the spectrum, gun laws, race and bias are just a few of the cast of characters in this 800-page whopper.

The characters are well-developed and unique. The locations are great. There were a few instances of the author giving us too much information that probably wouldn't come out in normal dialogue. I will let that slide, as some medical/scientific understanding does make the story better.

There is a tie-in that I loved. I love playing Fallout 4 on PS4. One of the songs in this post-apocalyptic game is "It's All Over But the Crying" by the Ink Spots. In this book, discussing the crumbling world, one of the characters mentions "It's All Over But The Crying" and says it's in their head because it was ironically placed in the Fallout 4 game.

I do feel the ending of the book was a little rushed. Have you heard this one is around 800 pages? What's another 15 pages to give us a little more finality? The book is a slow burn that doesn't pick up the pace for a while. It is one that I was wanting more. The acknowledgments page came up on my Kindle reader and I thought "NO!!!"

I should wrap this up. I like it, I love it, I want some more of it! I wish this book a lot of success upon release date. (less) [edit]

Who Killed the Fonz by James Boice

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy. 

A campy look at the Happy Days gang, if the timeline continued into the 1980's. Richard Cunningham is a movie director, Ralph and Potsie are still a single unit of cheesy one-liners, and the Fonz is dead. Arnold's is struggling for business with the Bennigan's across the street.

I grew up watching Happy Days, so there is a fun nostalgic element to this. The book's main theme, of finding out what happened to the Fonz, is as campy as a Saved the the Bell episode, or Scooby Doo who-done-it. But then again, so was Happy Days, do it does fit the old feel of the show. Richie tries hitting the jukebox to get it to play. Oops, sorry--Richard, not Richie. He demands to be taken seriously. A fun and quick read.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur books for this advanced copy.  Having just finished Hellbent, I ran seamlessly right into this book.

Out of the Dark is a fantastic cat-and-mouse game.  It follows Evan Smoak (aka The Nowhere Man, aka Orphan X) where Hellbent left off.  The President has interest in Orphan X, specifically the entire Orphan program.  Without spoiling the book, Evan is in his usual scenarios.  Despite his running, shooting, plotting, and hiding, he still likes his chilled vodka.  He still is in a will they/won't they relationship with Mia and her son, Peter.

Familiar faces re-appear in this book.  Hurwitz does a great job of creating these characters, having them show up in each book, as though no time has passed since we saw them last.  He builds suspense in his writing, and has the reader trying to solve what's coming next.  I hope to come back to this review once the book has been published.  A must-read for any Hurwitz fans!

Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz

Ah, Hellbent. Hurwitz has done it again!

The third book in the Orphan X series did not disappoint.  Our hero Evan Smoak is saving Joey, an Orphan program outcast, is on the hunt for Van Sciver, who apparently is the number 2 man giving orders, rescuing an initiate from a gang, and all while trying to keep his friendship alive with Mia in his apartment complex.  The Nowhere Man is constantly busy, and this book didn't slow down.  We are left with a wonderful little conversation with Evan and the number 1 man giving orders. 

These books are full of action, suspense, and really great relationships.  Oh, and he loves Vodka.  Really expensive vodka.  He also loves his plant Vera II.  I love that although this guy is constantly battling, scheming, and running, he's not some cartoon or superhero.  There are human emotions and gentle characteristics to him.  He kind of takes on a father figure role for Joey, just as Jack Johns had done for him.  This was a great read, and I am awaiting Out of the Dark to be released.

Let's get started

I usually post reviews of books on Goodreads and Instagram, but I felt I want to start a blog to further evaluate what I am reading.  I set a goal of 60 books for 2019, but we are having a baby in March, and realistically I will not be reading as much.  I will use this blog to further discuss what I think of my reads for the year.  Cheers!