2018 reading challenge: YOUR FAVORITE PROMPT FROM THE 2016 POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE

2016 category: book you can read in a day

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is loosely based on a strange idea that someone had. Let's import African Hippos and put them in the Mississippi delta for flower control and alternate food source .

This book says "what if this proposal came in the Mid-1800's and they did it?" Now some hippos have escaped their ranches and have gone feral. So a bunch of people who are in the grey area of the law are hired to take care of the problem.

I found the concept interesting but the book itself left me kinda eh, and certainly not excited enough to want to read any more in the series.




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2018 reading challenge: A BOOK THAT IS ALSO A STAGE PLAY OR MUSICAL

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Totally not what I was expecting. I went in expecting another in the proto-gothic style of writing with the drawn out and boring narrative from beginning to end with a story that was just like all the movie and stage renditions of this story that I've seen hundreds of time. I knew the story. Who in 2018 doesn't know at least the references. It's in everyday lexicon.

I did not expect the story to be told from the point of view of the lawyer. I did not expect that Jekyll's story and reasoning behind the experiment would be told really just through a single letter. There was actually for me a lot lacking in the characters of Jekyll and Hyde, that maybe if I had never seen any of the movies or fallen in love with the Broadway musical, I might have been left wanting. Pop culture (by many definitions) has fleshed out much of the backstory and given more depth to these iconic characters, which in today's society is needed. However, I can see how it was a ground breaking idea when it was published so long ago and even now, it gives the reader something to think on in regards to "human nature"

Also, had they not said that Scott Brick was the narrator for this audiobook, I would have sworn it was Michael York. This was the first fiction read by Brick where I liked his reading voice. I usually much prefer him reading non-fiction.



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2018 reading challenge: A BOOK THAT INVOLVES A BOOKSTORE OR LIBRARY

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There is no real easy way to describe this book. A couple friends recommended it and it fit a category for a reading challenge so, I figured what the hell.

Clay needs a job and while wandering around San Francisco stumbles upon a 24 hour book store that needs help. It's not as flashy a job as his last office based computer job, but he's desperate. He goes in and the little old man who owns the store hires him on as the overnight clerk. He quickly learns that the front of the store is just that.. a rather small book store. The back is a lending library for an exclusive membership that consists of some rather quirky and eccentric clientele.

In an attempt to alleviate some of the boredom from working the overnight shift in a 24 hour bookstore, Clay takes it upon himself to modernize things a bit and through a bit of computer programing to to track borrowing patterns and the like, he ends up solving a puzzle put in place by a very secret society. This causes him, and then by extension, some of his friends to become involved in completely solving the mystery that this secret society has been trying to figure out for over 500 years.

This was a quick and entertaining read and I would not dissuade anyone who expressed an interest in it. though I can't say I'm 100% content with the ending... but that's my issue, not the book's.



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