Book Review: Vita Brevis by Ruth Downie (3/5)

I don’t remember how I discovered this series but it was over a decade ago that I started reading it. I’ve been through about one book a year and I’ve always enjoyed them. They’re also always good for knocking a time period off of my historical fiction challenge!

Cover Image via Amazon

Vita Brevis (Medicus Investigation #7) by Ruth Downie

Other books by Downie reviewed on this blog:

Terra Incognita (Medicus Investigation #2)
Persona Non Grata (Medicus Investigation #3)
Caveat Emptor (Medicus Investigation #4)
Semper Fidelis (Medicus Investigation #5)
Tabula Rasa (Medicus Investigation #6)

Summary from Amazon:

Ruso and Tilla and their new baby daughter have left Roman-occupied Britain for Rome, but their excitement at arriving in the city is soon dulled when they find that the grand facades of polished marble mask an underworld of corrupt landlords and vermin-infested tenements. There are also far too many doctors – some skilled, but others positively dangerous. Ruso takes on a reputable medical practice only to find that his predecessor, Doctor Kleitos, has fled, leaving a dead man in a barrel on the doorstep and the warning, “Be careful who you trust.” Distracted by the body and his efforts to help a friend win the hand of a rich young heiress, Ruso makes a grave mistake, causing him to question both his competence and his integrity. With Ruso’s reputation under threat, he and Tilla must protect their small family from Doctor Kleitos’s debt collectors and find allies in their new home while they track down the vanished doctor and find out the truth about the unfortunate man in the barrel.

This book started off fast with the body in the barrel right away which seemed a bit of a faster start than some of the other books. I was trying to figure out what the main mystery to be solved would be: the man in the barrel, the missing doctor, or a death that comes further into the book? That had me a bit more lost than I’m used to in these books which was my minor frustration. However, so many of the things I love were back and it was wonderful. We got to see Tilla in her role as a healer where she exceeds. We got to see Ruso navigating politics and local culture. We got the comedy of Downie’s writing that I absolutely love. And we got development between Ruso and Tilla that’s always so satisfying. This was a great add to the series though I’ll say I’m glad we’re heading back to Britannia.

Tilla’s experiences in Rome were really well highlighted. She is a foreigner in a place that’s not very welcoming to foreigners. Her compatriots are slaves or freed slaves so her status as a Roman citizen always seems to be questioned or overlooked. She’s trying to learn how to live in a new place and also be a mother without anyone around she can trust except her busy husband. I can’t imagine how stressful that would feel. Her anger and frustrations were well described and I could relate to how she felt living in a new home.

Ruso was my favorite character this time around. While relatable, Tilla’s role in the plot was more minor than I’m used to and I didn’t enjoy her journey through the story as much as I did Ruso’s. I thought he was very resourceful and clever in his investigation and I liked hearing about his struggles to establish himself as a doctor.

Ruth Downie
Image via the author’s website

I loved hearing about the neighbors Tilla and Ruso had in their building. The loud barmaid and the zealous Christians upstairs made for a great combination that made me laugh thinking of my time living in dorms and apartments. You can’t control your neighbors, only how you react to them. I thought Tilla and Ruso did well, considering they’d not had to live in that type of arrangement before.

I thought this book dragged a bit in the middle and I lost some of my interest. It was a bit unclear which of the mysterious happenings I was supposed to care most about and I got stretched a bit thin caring about them all. Getting development about each one made the middle feel slow and I found the book easy to put down for a few days at a time.

The audiobook was narrated by Simon Vance and he did an amazing job. I enjoy his voice for this series and I’ll be greatly disappointed if there’s ever a Ruso book without Vance. He delivers the dry humor of Downie’s writing in the perfect tone and it always helps me laugh. I’m not sure I’d find the books as funny without Vance’s delivery.

There were a lot of people in this book who were outsiders trying to join Roman society. Many people were former slaves whose fortunes had turned. It was interesting to see someone besides Tilla in that role after so many books of her being the only one. We are shown how those people are not consistently accepted in their new roles, as Tilla has experienced in many of these books. While Roman citizens, it’s hard to escape the story of who they were before they gained that monicer.

Writer’s Takeaway: I think Downie tried to do just a little too much in this book. Having too many subplots can make a middle feel like more of a slog than it should as all of them are developed. There were a lot of mysteries in this book and while they all wrapped up, I would have liked to see them peak and ebb at different times to keep the plot moving well along.

Enjoyable and funny, this book is a great addition to the series and I can’t wait to get to the next one. Three out of Five Stars.

This book fulfills the Pre 1200 time period of the When Are You Reading? 2024 Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Post:
Vita Brevis | Lillabullero

Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakaur (5/5)

I honestly don’t remember how this landed on my TBR. I read a Krakaur book back in high school so it’s been ages. I picked this up just because it was already on the list and I’m pretty rigorous about following my TBR in order and it was time. What a pleasant surprise.

Cover Image via Amazon

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakaur

Summary from Amazon:

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this “divinely inspired” crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy off-shoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

I won’t lie, the scenes about the murder were hard to read. It was very detailed in the description and the brutality of it was jarring. That aside, the rest of the book was fascinating if not sad and at times disturbing. I’ll admit I knew very little about the Mormon religion and Joseph Smith. I knew it was somehow tied to polygamy but didn’t understand the history involved there and what the current status now was. I learned a lot in this book about the current LDS church and the offshoot sects that exist and Krakaur did a great job of not making it feel like a history lesson while teaching me so much. His research and interviews intertwined well into the complicated history behind such a atrocity.

Krakaur’s descriptions of the Lafferty family is both hard to read and yet feels very true. A family with convictions and who engages in such myopic groupthink isn’t hard to imagine. It’s the ideas they discuss and decisions they come to that are so baffling. The book lets us see what that can turn into over generations when we dive into the fundamentalist communities Krakaur describes and the results are quite chilling to an outsider.

DeLoy Bateman was one of the most interesting people in the book for me. He was a fundamentalist who lost his faith in the church and God but is struggling with leaving the church because of how much of his history and family is rooted in it. I thought that was a really interesting jorney to be on and I appreciated how honest he was with Krakaur about it. The family and property issues he was having as a result were groundshaking. It took a lot of nerve and heart to make the decision he did and I appreciated him telling his story.

There were parts of this book that surprised me. I grew up with a church community, but a rather mild one compared to many. Most of the views of my church aligned with mainstream America and weren’t in opposition to laws in the country. So hearing about such a large group of Christians who had such different beliefs was a bit surprising. I remember feeling something similar when I was in high school and went to church with a friend of mine from a different branch of Christianity. It was shocking to me how different it was from mine, yet we were both Christians. I don’t think I’ll ever cease to be surprised how one fait can look so many different ways.

Jon Krakaur. Image via Wikipedia

The later chapters that questioned the line between insanity and religious belief were really fascinating to me. It’s a solid question and not one that’s easy to answer. If someone hears voices, they have a mental illness. But if it’s the voice of God, is it different? The commandments of Christian prophets in the past have run counter to society’s customs and laws. Should we be surprised if they would do that again with a new prophet? These questions really pushed the opinions I was drawing while reading the book. I had concluded that the Lafferty brothers were mentally ill or had been brainwashed in some sense, but when framed in the context of religion, it becomes a lot less clear if they were mentally fit. I still can’t get on board with a God that would want two people killed in that way so I know where I ultimately fall in my opinion.

The descriptions of the crime were really hard to read. I sped through the rest of the book, but those passages slowed me down and made me step away. Writing this is giving me enough of a reminder that’s making me uncomfortable that I’m going to stop at that and not go into more detail.

This book questions the nature of faith and religion. What folks will do if they agree or disagree with something is very different when it’s a matter of religion instead of something like science or history. I think the Moutain Meadows Massacre described in the book is a great example. If the crime was committed by a Native American tribe as the church claimed at the time, it was precieved as violent, immoral, and unjust. However, when the story becomes that God wanted those folks to be eradicated, it becomes a necessary act that’s Holy and justified. It’s interesting how such events are viewed retroactivly, even by those who committed them as described in the book.

Writer’s Takeaway: The first hand interviews in this book really make it flow. Using the accounts of peole who were affected by the systems and beliefs described helps hammer home the variety of opinions people can hold about a single thing. The writer could give his own opinion on the topics but as an outsider, that’s going to have a strong level of bias. Talking to LDS members and people who are related to or part of the communities covered was a great way of making it more multi-leveled.

Overall, I was hooked and really learned a lot from this book. Five out of Five Stars.

I debated a few time periods but ultimately decided that this book will count toward the 1980-1999 time period of the When Are You Reading? Challenge. I think I would have been justified to use the 1800-1899 time period as well since there was so much of the history of the Mormon Church included.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Posts:
Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakaur | A Bookish Type
Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakaur (2004) | One Year, One Hundred Books
Review – Under the Banner of Heaven | Book Addiction
Under the Banner of Heaven | Read Between the Spines

Book Review: Can I Say by Travis Barker (3/5)

I was a huge fan of the early 2000s pop-punk music scene. Honestly I still listen to it more than most music. My husband is a massive Blink-182 fan and I’m very familiar with their music as well. When I saw that Barker had a memoir out, it seemed like a logical read for me. I’ve gone through a lot of rock memoirs and novels lately so it seemed like time to add another one into my reading mix.

Cover image via Amazon

Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums by Travis Barker with Gavin Edwards

Summary from Amazon:

Travis Barker’s soul-baring memoir chronicles the highlights and lowlights of the renowned drummer’s art and his life, including the harrowing plane crash that nearly killed him and his traumatic road to recovery—a fascinating never-before-told-in-full story of personal reinvention grounded in musical salvation and fatherhood.

After breaking out as the acclaimed drummer of the multiplatinum punk band Blink-182, everything changed for Travis Barker. But the dark side of rock stardom took its toll: his marriage, chronicled for an MTV reality show, fell apart. Constant touring concealed a serious drug addiction. A reckoning did not truly come until he was forced to face mortality: His life nearly ended in a horrifying plane crash, and then his close friend, collaborator, and fellow crash survivor DJ AM died of an overdose.

In this blunt, driving memoir, Barker ruminates on rock stardom, fatherhood, death, loss, and redemption, sharing stories shaped by decades’ worth of hard-earned insights. His pulsating memoir is as energetic as his acclaimed beats. It brings to a close the first chapters of a well-lived life, inspiring readers to follow the rhythms of their own hearts and find meaning in their lives.

As a casual Blink fan, I knew very little about Barker and the inner workings of the band. I liked the chronicle of Barker’s childhood and how he came to be in the bands he performed in. I had no idea about his business success with Famous and his own record label. It was really interesting to hear about his other musical endeavors as well. I never would have guessed he would perform with so many other artists and be a part of groups in so many different genres. I did have some major issues with the writing in this book, however. Barker is not a writer so I can’t fairly hold him to the same standard I would for someone who made their living in that medium. However, I found the writing really frustrating. So many things were characterized as awesome, amazing, cool, rad, etc. that it started losing it’s meaning. Barker was very dry in his descriptions of a lot of things and it made it hard to get invested. He went into a lot of detail about his sex life which I thought was a bit off topic seeing as how it felt like that got more words than his music at many points in the book. Knowing there was a ghost writer to this, I wonder what it read like before he had a hand in it.

I think Barker described himself very realistically. He was honest about things he messed up on and flaws that he had. One thing that seemed out of place was how he was so forthcoming about his downsides, that the exerpts from folks saying kind words about him almost seemed out of place. He was often described as quiet but kind and polite, but the general narrative was how he seemed to be a bit dismissive and brusque. I think that comes from the writing style. Without the addition from his friends and family, I think I would have had a worse impression of him.

I liked how Barker gave others a chance to describe things in their own words as well. It was cool to hear from the other musicians he collaborated with and hear the positive things they would say about his talent and dedication. That was another area where he was very humble and didn’t speak a lot about so the additional commentary was necessary to learn how much his talent pushed him toward his success.

There wasn’t a lot I could relate to in this book. Barker’s rock and roll life style is very different from mine and the industry I’m in is nothing like the music industry. He was rubbing shoulders with household names constantly and the level of fame he’s achieved is astounding. The lack of emotion in his writing made it hard to engage on that level which kept me at an arm’s length.

Travis Barker Image via Rotten Tomatoes

Probably because of where I am in my life, but I loved when Barker described his relationship with his kids. It was very sweet to hear about he gets so involved in the things they love and supporting them. It was great to hear how he brings them on tour as much as possible to expose them to new and different things. In many ways, he’s an exemplary father.

Barker when into a lot of details about his sex life in the early part of the book that I thought were unnecessary. They didn’t help me understand him as a person or develop what I felt was the main focus of the book, his involvement in the music industry. It often felt a bit like he was bragging about the women he’d been with more than anything.

Barker commented many times on how he was judged based on his appearance. He was pulled over by a cop, asked to leave his kid’s school, and not accepted amongst the rich (even though he was richer). I think that’s a great message to hear. He may be covered in tattoos, wear skateboarding brands and ripped clothing, but he’s a dedicated father, sober, a vegan, and a very disciplined musician. Not everyone can say the same about themselves.

Writer’s Takeaway: I think there were times this book was confused about what it wanted to say. I think Barker wanted to focus on his musical journey from origin to where it is today. There were obvious things to add to this, such as his relationships with his family and personal struggles he had with drugs. Some parts of his life were very public such as his plane crash and his marriage which needed to be addressed. However, it felt like there was so much he wanted to talk about, so many collaborations he felt needed to be mentioned, that there wasn’t much space left for emotions. We got very scant impressions of how Barker felt about a lot of the things that happened to him or that he did and it left me feeling like after 400 pages, I still don’t know much about him.

Overall, a bit of a disappointment but a good insight into a lifestyle drastically different from my own. Three out of Five Stars.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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Book Review: Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (2/5)

I picked this book because I was trying to fill a time period for the When Are You Reading? Challenge at the end of 2023. Unfortunately, it was too little too late and I didn’t finish the challenge that year. This book was part of the reason because it really failed to capture my attention as much as I tried to get into it. So now that I’ve finished it (two months too late), I’ll count it toward 2024. I was trying to find something set in the Aztec Empire and there’s not a lot available so I did appreciate that aspect of this story.

Cover image via Amazon

Servant of the Underworld (Obsidian and Blood #1) by Aliette de Bodard

Summary from Amazon:

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. Human sacrifice and the magic of the living blood are the only things keeping the sun in the sky and the earth fertile. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. It should be a usual investigation for Acatl, High Priest of the Dead–except that his estranged brother is involved, and the the more he digs, the deeper he is drawn into the political and magical intrigues of noblemen, soldiers, and priests-and of the gods themselves…

There were a few things about this book that were not in it’s favor going in. I struggle with first person point of view books, especially action-oriented stories from that POV. I’m also generally not a fan of books with magic. I know that seems odd coming from a massive Harry Potter fan, but that’s an exception to my preferences, honestly. Adding to that the complex names that left me mixing up allies and foes, this book was difficult for me to get into and enjoy. There were aspects of it I liked, don’t get me wrong. Learning about the Aztec gods and religion was really interesting, even if I did get the gods mixed up as much as I got them right. And the society at the time was really interesting, too. I loved picturing what the city would look like as the characters walked around it.

None of the characters really resonated with me. I tend to have this problem with plot-driven books where the action matters more than who’s acting. Acatl fell flat to me and didn’t have too much of a personality beyond his guilt over his parents death and his lack of attention to his role. His siblings struck true with me more but still didn’t have fully fleshed out characters in my opinion. Huei and Neutemoc’s relationship was pretty realistic which I liked, but I struggled to understand what the rift between them was. Mihmatini was a kind person and a good sister, but she didn’t seem to have much personality and I didn’t fully understand how she knew magic but wasn’t working at a temple. (As a side note, I’m only spelling these names right because there’s a reference list in the back of the book. Otherwise I knew them as Hu and Neu with younger sister Mihm. When I run into difficult names, I usually only read the first few letters which made this book really hard for me to read.)

Teomitl was my favorite character. I liked how we learned more about him slowly. He’s introduced as an arrogant youth and we see he’s very smart and capable before we learn more about his family and his future. I liked the way he developed through the story and I honestly forgot often about how young he was with the way he spoke and the responsibility he took on. If I continue on with the series, it’s only to see what happens to him.

None of the characters were very relatable to me. There weren’t a lot of personal details that I could have connected to and their experience was so far from what I have or can ever expect to experience that the plot wasn’t something to relate to. This is my major struggle connecting to action-driven books. Huei was a mother and I realted to her there, but I couldn’t understand the motivation for her actions through the book so it stopped early and I didn’t find another person to relate to as the book continued.

There’s not a part of the book that stood out to me as more enjoyable than the rest. The continued search gave the story a fast pace but it didn’t feel like there were particular scenes that stood out from the others as faster or slower than others.

I struggled with the final battle scene a lot. I didn’t understand who was the enemy and who was an ally. The names on both sides were very similar and I got confused. On top of that, I didn’t really grasp leaving the Fifth World and what that meant for reality. It seemed like Acatl was able to use magic in just the way he needed to defeat the villian and it was almost too convenient, which is an issue I have with magic and gods in stories. The fall out was very quick and the book ended very quickly afterward which left me feeling a bit cheated.

Acatl carries a lot of guilt about how he was preceived by his parents. In his culture, warriors are the most prized and he didn’t choose that path. I think we see that today in children who don’t choose to follow their parents footsteps or aspirations in career choices, too. He’s very driven by the desire to proove he’s made a good choice and performs well at his job. His brother’s faults bother him when Neutemoc was always preceived as the ‘better’ child. I think that resentment is very real at any time in human history.

Writer’s Takeaway: Writing a science fiction story is difficult, especially when magic is at play. Magic needs to have rules in the same way science has rules and limits. I didn’t feel like this book had those limits and I think having gods playing with the human world complicated that further. It felt like everything was going to be solved with a spell or the intervention of a god, making the human players seem almost unnecessary. At that point, the gods should be the focus of the story instead of the people.

Overall, not a book for me. I don’t think I’ll continue the series. Two out of Five Stars.

This book fulfills the 1200-1499 time period of the 2024 When Are You Reading? Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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Things That Go Bump in the Night of a Tenochtitlan of Long Ago – A Review of Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard | Occasionally Random Book Reviews 

Book Review: Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali (3/5)

This was a free audiobook download through my library that I grabbed a few years ago and was sitting on. I think the week this one was available was for religious diversity in the narrators which I really liked. I live in an area with a high Muslim population so while I’m around that subculture often, it’s not something I’ve experienced first hand and I was excited to have a narrator show me more of what it’s like.

Cover image via Amazon

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Summary from Amazon:

There are three kinds of people in my world:

1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.

2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me – the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.

Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.

But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?

3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.

Like the monster at my mosque.

People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask.

Except me.

I had some really mixed reactions to this book. I liked that it delt with some pretty deep topics in a very real way. I liked how it talked about the way Janna’s life was impacted by her religion and showed how it impacted others. However, it seemed really juvinile at times and there also seemed to be a lot of subplots that ended no where and were a bit of a waste of time. I was a little frutrated at the end because it felt like so many of them didn’t wrap up.

I think the characters were pretty realistic. I liked that many of them were flawed and had other things going on in their lives. While some of those plot lines fizzled out, it did give them a deeper character development. Muhammad’s interest in Philosophy, their mother going to singles events- none of it really impacted the story, but it made the characters richer.

Sarah was my favorite character because she surprised me the most. I figured she had something in her background that was unsuspected after we learned she moved to the area two years before. I liked the way her backstory developed and how she became a friend for Janna. It seemed really natural and was one of the instances where the backstory seemed to really impact the storyline.

The social situations Janna found herself in were really relatable. I think we’ve all had a fight with a friend like she did with Fiz. And I think we all have a friend who always has our back like Tats. The ways she navigated social pressures did remind me a lot of high school. Getting back to an earlier complaing, it felt like some of it was unnecessary for the plotline, but it was still very realistic.

S.K. Ali. Image via Wikipedia

I thought Janna’s realtionship with Muhammad was really genuine. They had enough of an age gap where I could see how their perspectives on their parents were drastically different. I think the opposite gender can more often lead to siblings not getting along (my personal experience at least). I loved how he was looking out for her and was there to protect her after everything and despite how she treated him. That felt very real and was very sweet.

The plotline with Fiz bothered me the most. There was no resolution there despite her being a major character in the story for the entire duration. Are we supposed to assume everything just got cut off and is fine over? Or after Janna spoke her truth, should we assume Fiz apologized and they’re good again? I really would have liked more closure to know how this part of the story ended.

The audiobook was narrated by Ariana Delawari. I thought she did well giving Janna a naive yet jaded voice. There was a lot of things in her life that she was unaware of at the beginning of the book and learned a lot. Delawari had a ‘happy go lucky’ tone for Janna at the beginning (that was used for Tats throughout) that became more serious as events unfolded. I thought this was really well done.

Janna is the victim of sexual assault and is dealing with the repurcussions of that. It’s a horrible situation to be in. She’s even more frustrated by the respect her assaulter receives in her religious community where she thinks he should be most shunned. Janna has a lot to navigate with this relationship and I think she does it in a very brave way. She comes clean about the experience to folks she trusts and does well to avoid her attacker, things that can be difficult. One can’t blame her for the fear she has and how long it takes her to get there. I think she’s a great roll model for how to talk about these instances when they happen, though it would have been great if she’d felt safe to talk about it sooner.

Writer’s Takeaway: The number of subplots in this book was a bit overwhelming. I think it would have been better to keep it to a smaller number, maybe the Pringles, Mr. Ram, and Muhammad’s relationship with Sarah. By bringing in a lot of other characters who touched these plots but had their own subplots to deal with, the book was a bit overwhelming and you didn’t know what to focus on. I would have cut the exam stress, her mother’s dating life, and Sausun’s YouTube channel, just to name a few.

Overall, a good message, but a bit too much for me. Three out of Five Stars

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

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Review: Saints and Misfits | Colorful Book Reviews
Review: Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali | The Hermit Librarian
Spotlight: Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali | BookCheshireCat
Modern Hijabis and Chickadees: a Review of Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali | Book Loves Reviews

Book Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (3/5)

I was optimistic about finishing this book in 2023 and being able to count it toward my Historical Fiction challenge. That didn’t work out. I should have been more intimidated than I was by the length. On the bright side, I’m kicking off 2024 with some great variety.

Cover image via Amazon

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Summary from Amazon:

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

I’m a big fan of the Tudor era and I’ve read a number of historical fiction books about the characters in this novel. Nothing really surprised me and I was able to keep all the characters and relations straight in my mind fairly well. I think one of the things that was hard for me was listening to this instead of reading it. Mantel doesn’t use a lot of dialogue tags and it was very often hard to tell who was talking and scenes seemed to change suddenly when I wasn’t ready for it. I don’t know if the text would have made this easier to follow, but it was a struggle when only listening.

When you read enough about the same historical figures, you start to get a sense of them in your mind. Thomas Moore was one where this book portrayed him very differently than I have imagined him in the past. This Moore was a villian in more ways than I was ready for. And this Anne Boylen was a lot less charming than I’d pictured her. All writers have the same handicap of not knowing the person so it’s hard to say if any of the potrayals are correct, but I had a lot of fun comparing these potrayals to those in books, movies, and shows I’ve seen over the years and finding stark differences in their personalities.

Surprisingly, I liked Woolsey in this book. He’s never been a figure I liked much in other stories of this point in history, but having him so prominant was fun. I liked seeing the turmoil he went through with the King’s desires and seeing how he was treated after was really interesting, too. I think seeing things from more of his perspective was a fun change from how we normally think of this time, from either Anne or Henry’s point of view.

I think Thomas is relatable to a lot of people. He has to change his thoughts, appearance, and speech depending on who he’s talking to and what’s going on around him to keep himself and his loved ones safe. Oddly, this reminds me of high school and other times when you might not be your true self for fear of rejection or safety. It made him a really relatable narrator.

Hillary Mantel Image from the New York Times

I was most intrigued by the parts of this book that focused on Cromwell’s family. As I said, I knew the historical context surrounding Henry’s marriages and the politics that went along with it. I didn’t know much about Cromwell and his role. Learning about him and his wife and children was really interesting. I grew to really like him in this book which I wasn’t expecting to.

I found that this book dragged more than I thought necessary. There were details and conversations that didn’t seem necessary and that made it feel like it went on far longer than it needed to. I found myself bord of it more than once. Knowing the history, not a lot surprised me which didn’t help.

The audiobook was narrated by Simon Slater. I had not issue with Slater’s reading of the book, but I wonder how much my confusion about speaker and jumps in scene was because of his reading instead of the writing style. The book felt dream-like at times and while that was a unique experience for a historical fiction novel, it could be a bit confusing as it led me to be disengaged and wonder if I’d not come back to the book in the right spot.

I’m told this series does a great job of turning Thomas Cromwell into the man history remembers him as. He starts off sympathetic in this book and you want to root and cheer for him. Everyone has an origin story and this is a fine one for Thomas. He’s very humanized in this story, something not every historical character gets.

Writer’s Takeaway: I think this story was almost too ambitous. The length for how much time it covered was a lot for me. It didn’t feel like a solid ending because it’s leading into the second book very heavily. I almost think that ending with the marriage to Anne would have been a better place because so much of the book led to that. It failed to feel like a complete story to me.

While this book wasn’t for me, I did enjoy the character development that came with it. Three out of Five Stars.

This book fulfilled the 1500-1699 time period of the 2024 When Are You Reading? Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Posts:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009) | The Bookworm Chronicles
Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel | all the books i can read

Book Review: The Puzzler by A.J. Jacobs (3/5)

I’m a sucker for anything Jacobs. I’ve been a fan of his for over a decade and whenever I see a new book is out, it goes on my list. I love his form of journalism and I like the topics he explores. Even though this one wasn’t a new favorite, I still liked it and I’m glad I read it, even if I took a break in the middle to read other books.

Cover image via Amazon

The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs

Other books by Jacobs reviewed on this blog:

It’s All Relative (4/5)
Drop Dead Healthy (5/5)

Summary from Amazon:

What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A.J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.

In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. Chock-full of unforgettable adventures and original examples from around the world—including new work by Greg Pliska, one of America’s top puzzle-makers, and a hidden, super-challenging but solvable puzzle—The Puzzler will open readers’ eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you’re puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you’ll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker—for these are certainly puzzling times.

I have to start by saying this book was really ambitious. Not only was Jacobs reporting on his experience with different types of puzzles, he included many in the book for folks to try and solve themselves. He partnered with someone who was very knowledgable and got some challenging puzzles included in the book and if you’re a puzzle fan, that’s awesome and makes for an even more delightful read. But, if you’re me, you skipped over a lot of these and finished the book sooner than expected because of the long puzzle challenge and answer list in the back. I was in this book for Jacobs and his writing, not so much for the puzzles, and I think that took away from how much I enjoyed it. If I was coming to Jacobs for the first time and was interested in the topic more, I think this book would have knocked it out of the park.

Jacobs always describes his family and coworkers in a way that shows how he really feels and what they’re really like without sugar coating someone’s flaws. I appreciate this. Maybe his wife and kids don’t, but I do. I liked how he talked about the people he met and some of the quirks they had. Anyone who’s a fanatic of something will likely be animated when talking about it and we see that in the people Jacobs meets along his journey.

There wasn’t anyone who showed up more than one or two sections of this book because of how it skipped topics. I think that’s something that kept me from latching onto it as well as some of his other works. The experts in one type of puzzle were not often featured when talking about another. While Jacobs’ sons and wife came into the picture a few times, they didn’t get a ton of time to shine as a character this time around.

When Jacobs was working on a puzzle type I was familiar with, I was a lot more invested in the story. I’m familiar with Sudoku and I’ve enjoyed a lot of logic puzzles before. But when it came to chess puzzles and scavenger hunts, I was interested but a lot less engaged. I liked learning about Crossword Puzzles and I think Jacobs’ personal interest here made the research a lot more rich. I got a feeling his personal interest in some areas ebbed and flowed.

A..J. Jacobs Image via Goodreads

I thought Jacobs sectionon Rubik’s Cubes was really interesting. I’ve previously had the pattern to solve memorized but have been fascinated by folks who do it without a pattern and speed solvers whose brains seem to process things at a lightning speed I can’t imagine. Hearing about the larger cubes and custom designs was really fun and I thought it was a cool way to explore that topic.

Some of the puzzle types toward the end seemed to be covered very briefly as more of a courtesy than anything else. The riddles and infinity puzzle sections in particular had a very surface feel to them. It got me feeling like Jacobs wasn’t as invested so why should I be?

Puzzles are often a universal languge. While some like crosswords and riddles might not translate well, other areas like jigsaw and number-based puzzles will. I liked the idea of puzzles as a way of connecting folks together and being a universal source of fun for many.

Writer’s Takeaway: It was clear to me when Jacobs was passionate about something and when he was covering a topic because it needed to be talked about. I can’t expect a writer to be completely engaged with the entirety of a topic all of the time, but I was still disappointed because his lack of enthusiasm carried over to me as the reader. Maybe using guest writers would have helped. Or maybe this topic wasn’t quite enough to write a whole book.

Overall enjoyable but not my favorite from Jacobs. Three out of Five Stars.

This book fulfills the 2000-Present Time Period in the 2024 When Are You Reading? Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Post:
2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge: Book Review of “The Puzzler” | Shoe’s Seeds & Stories

Book Review: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (4/5)

I never read this book in school, which shocked my partner who read it twice. I was desperately trying to finish my reading challenge in 2023 and needed a WWI era book so he recommended picking this one up. I’m glad I did. I wonder if I’m able to enjoy some books more because I don’t have to read them and I’m choosing to.

Cover image via Amazon

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Summary from Amazon:

This is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . .  if only he can come out of the war alive.

I found the story very moving and real in a way I wasn’t quite ready for. I wasn’t sure if it was historical fiction or written by someone who had been there and the more I read, the more certain I was that Remarque had experienced this himself (he had). The first half seemed to bounch back and forth between the front line and the break the soldiers got between their turns at the front. The stark differences between the two were very well done and showed how brutal conditions were for those fighting. I thought Remarque wrote beautifully about the feelings Paul and his comrades had while fighting and I found it all very moving.

The characters were all very realstic though I’ll admit I had trouble keeping them separate. I knew the names of the folks who were fighting with Paul, but I didn’t know much about their background or personalities. Tejaden was the one who stuck out to me as he was funny and blunt, but the others seemed to blend together.

Paul was a great narrator. He spoke with the voice of all the men on the front, not being anyone special or someone who thought of themself as different from the others. His story of going home on leave, his training, and injury gave the reader a really full sense of the different experiences the soldiers would have gone through while fighting. It’s very possible any of the boys in his group could have narrated the story and it wouldn’t have been very different.

While I’ve been lucky not to experience wartime like Paul and his friends, I think the feeling of disenchantment they go through is common enough. They were encouraged to fight for their country and glory but learned quickly that there’s a lot that’s fabricated about that. I think growing up will evoke similar feelings. For me, it was that living on my own wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. I had this great sense of independance for having my own place and taking care of myself. But it came with lot of lonliness and depression. I could relate to the disappointment that something you’d built up in your mind wasn’t anything like what you’d been promised.

Erich Maria Remarque. Image via Wikipedia

I felt the book picked up significantly once Paul got leave and went back home. Seeing how different his life before the war was and realizing how distanced he felt from his family and friends shifted the tone of the book. Before, he was surviving and being a brave soldier so he could return home in glory. After being home, he realized he couldn’t return to the life he had and wasn’t the same person he used to be. His feelings about the war as a temporary situation changed because he realized it was a larger impact. I thought this made the second half a lot more emotional and nuanced.

The first half seemed almost a bit repetitive with the repeated turns at the front and how similar they were. I think that was purposeful because the war was repetative and almost predictable for many of the soldiers serving. While it wasn’t exciting reading, it was still really important.

This book spoke very honestly about modern warfare and the affects on the soldiers. We know history is told by the victors but even more importantly, it’s told by those in power which are not the foot soldiers. It’s important that this story could share the experience of the layman who had to fight the war. The back of this copy talked about how Remarque’s books were banned by Hitler when he left the country and refused to fight in another war. I don’t think Hitler would have wanted potential soldiers reading about how brutal and gritty an experience they might be in for.

Writer’s Takeaway: This is a great example of someone writing something they know well and it showing in a beautiful way. Remarque’s experience is unique and his ability to write it to share with the world is a gift. First person accounts (or near first person accounts in this case) are a great way to learn about history and to see what can happen and hopefully learn not to repeat our mistakes.

This book was very moving and very well written. Four out of Five Stars.

This bookfulfilled the 1900-1919 time period of the When Are You Reading? Challenge 2023.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Posts:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque | Book Snob
Book Review: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque | Anne with a Book
Book Review: “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Eric Maria Remarque (1929) | Elliot’s Blog
‘Im Westen Nichts Neus’ (‘All Quiet on the Western Front’) by Erich Maria Remarque (Review) | Tony’s Reading List
Erich Maria Remarque- “All Quiet on the Western Front” | WordParrot

Book Review: The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer (3/5)

I grabbed a used copy of this thinking I would leave it in Germany with my sister in law. I never thought I’d finish it, honestly! However, I forgot to bring it to her the last day we were there and she didn’t have time to come grab it, so I ended up bringing it home and finishing it off.

The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

Other books by Meltzer reviewed on this blog:

The Millionaires
The Book of Fate
The Book of Lies
The Inner Circle (Culper Ring #1) (and Book Club Reflection)
The Fifth Assassin (Culper Ring #2)
Bonus: Meeting Author Brad Meltzer

Summary from Amazon:

Who is Nola Brown?

Nola is a mystery

Nola is trouble.

And Nola is supposed to be dead.

Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she’s dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim “Zig” Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.

Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig’s daughter and someone who once saved his daughter’s life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he’s determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola’s past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes.

Together, Nola and Zig will either reveal a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power or die trying to uncover the US Army’s most mysterious secret–a centuries-old conspiracy that traces back through history to the greatest escape artist of all: Harry Houdini.

This book was about what I expected: a fast paced thriller with slight political ties and some kind of secret society. I’ve read a few Meltzer books before so nothing hugely surprising in this one. I expected to be entertained and I was, but there was nothing too deep-thinking involved. That’s really what I was looking for, something I could easily pick up and put down on a plane with a whining toddler next to me.

No one in this book was an Average Joe and I had to expect that coming into the book. Zig, who is middle-aged with no athletic background, still has a lot of secret knowledge and performs well under pressure when needed in the story. Nola is an exceptional person. She might not be the most personable woman you’ve met, but she’s got a lot of strength and some expecptional skills that make her stand out. Most of the other characters have some special talent or strong personality that makes them stand out. I think the exceptional nature of many thriller characters is what keeps me from connecting with them much at all.

Nola was fun to cheer for and I enjoyed seeing how her childhood affected her in adulthood. The slow reveal was great and maybe I was not ready closely, but I didn’t see it coming! That was a fun connection and I liked seeing how it played out.

Maybe some of the things Nola experienced would resonate with some readers, but not so much with me. She had a really terrible childhood and then I wasn’t able to relate to her time in the military. Zig being a parent was relatable, but I’m fortunate not to have lost a child like he did. Again, not being able to connect with these characters definately kept me at arm’s length during the story.

I thought the way we met Nola was really fun. It was a treat to see how she reacted to the threat she found herself under and I think it revealed a lot about her personality right away.

Brad Meltzer and me

A lot of this book ended up feeling like fluff. The last 1/5 was very fast paced and informed but made me feel like the search for Houdini and Operation Bluebook was really stretched out just to come crashing down in the last few chapters. I think it could have been shorter and more punchy throughout rather than mostly at the end.

Nola continually questions why Zig is helping her out. I think it’s a valid question because he doesn’t seem to have too much skin in the game he finds himself in. Even after finishing the book, I’m a little confused why he was so invested in Nola and her situation. He’s a genuinly good person, he likes helping people and I get that. But he risked his life and his career on multiple occasions and that just seemed like a bit much to me. Maybe Zig’s just a better person than me. Maybe I can’t understand because of the loss he’s had. Or maybe it’s just not realistic.

Writer’s Takeaway: I thought the flashbacks to Nola’s childhood worked really well. They helped inform who this woman was when she seemed so odd at first. Her personality and motivations started to make more and more sense as we learned about her and I liked seeing that develop. With a difficult character like Nola, it’s good to add these details to make it more believable.

Overall, enjoyable for the time a situation I needed, but not a book that really blew me away. Three out of Five Stars.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (4/5)

A former coworker recommended this one to me and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to move this one up the list in a desperate attempt to finish a challenge that I will likely fall short of. But I’m trying.

Cover image via Amazon

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Summary from Amazon:

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

The ending of this book shone. I’m not saying it wasn’t good along the way, but the emotional rollercoaster that the last few chapters delivered was one of the better endings I’ve ever read and really stood out. I didn’t have trouble putting the book down for the first 3/4 of the story, if I’m being honest. But I was hooked at the end. It was a good time to be on a plane with a broker entertainment system because I had very little to distract me besides my inconsolable two year old. I cried, I gasped out loud, and I was wrecked by the ending. It was great.

I felt like I didn’t get to know Monique as well as I’d like. There were parts of her story that stood out from the moments she shared, but this was really Evelyn’s story. She was so well described and brought to life, it really shone. Harry is the other character that stays with you when the book is over and I really liked how Reid made them such good friends in this story.

Evelyn was my favorite character in the book and was how I stayed so engaged in the story. I liked how ruthless she was and how conniving she was to get what she wanted and protect who she loved. It was questionable at times, to be sure, but it made for a great story.

I didn’t have a lot in common with the characters which I think it what kept me from loving this book as much as others have. I think Monique was supposed to be the more relatable character as a career-woman of the modern era, but I couldn’t see myself in her. I’m close with my mom like she is, but my career and family life are really different. It kept me just emoitionally distant enough that I didn’t fall head over heels for this one.

Taylor Jenkins Reid Image via Facebook

That ending! I loved the way it brought everything full circle. I’m going to be vague here so I don’t give away any spoilers but I loved how it brought back things from Monique’s story early in the book and gave Evelyn a really powerful narrative. It felt like a really clean ending without being cliche and I think it was one of the most well thought out endings I’ve read in years. Bravo.

The on-and-off with Celia started to wear on me over the course of the book. Breaking up and getting back together that many times makes for some good drama, but I also started to question the health of their relationship. How much of it was external forces getting between them and how much was a lack of mutual respect and understanding? I started to feel like it was more the later.

This book did a great job of talking about a woman’s role in Hollywood history and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Evelyn is remembered as much for her body and her husbands as her acting and awards. Max is probably the best example of this in the book. He is convinced he loves her but is far more in love with the idea of her and what she represents than her as a person. While Evelyn figures it out right away, Max is oblivious to it for years. Seeing the lengths Celia and Evelyn go to so they won’t be found out was really heartwrenching at times. Their reaction to the Stonewall Riots stood out to me. I loved the desire to join the fight but understood the fear and hesitation to follow through. I can’t imagine the fear that the community faced at that time and I think Reid’s characters showed a lot of different sides of the story that helped me put together a picture of the situation.

Writer’s Takeaway: I struggle with endings and this was such a great example of how to do them right! It was very intentional and you could tell Reid planned it from the beginning, just like Evelyn would have. I think it shows how stories can find strength in good plotting and what I have to imagine is a strong round of editing to get everything to line up. Hats off, this one blew me away.

A great read and one I’ll be recommending. Four out of Five Stars.

This book fulfills the 1960-1979 time period of the When Are You Reading? Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Some of the links on this post may be affiliate links. Taking on a World of Words is a participant in affiliate programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products. If you purchase a product or service through an affiliate link, your cost will be the same but Sam will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Related Posts:
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