Tom Hanks, Bears, and Two Mysteries 🎞️ 🐻🔎🔍

 

 I like Tom Hanks because I'm not a monster. His novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is fun and informative. My involvement in movies is I've watched many from my couch. Tom Hanks's novel is a worthwhile read, but I find myself asking, would this have gotten published if the author wasn't Tom Hanks? Maybe not. The writing can be clunky; lots of description that doesn't further the plot, many simplistically rendered characters to keep track of. Though Hanks does try, his characters are either good guys or bad guys without much nuance or development. The book could have benefitted from multiple storylines and more tension. However, it was heartwarming. The good guys triumph, and the bad guys get their just desserts.

🍿🎥🎬🎞️📽️

  My daughter asked me to read Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, General Editor. It was written by seven Christian women to address what our culture teaches about spirituality and thought trends. Something I've seen depicted is wealthy people are evil, and that is discussed in a chapter on Marxism. The book is well-researched, and the women are passionate about defending Christianity and safeguarding their children. The format is designed for a study or class with questions and action points. The book proposes teaching a "spit and chew" method of evaluating cultural messages--keep the pearls, spit out the swine. Talking with our kids about world views of the things they consume is a great idea. 

  I found the book's voice somewhat uneven as it jumped from author to author. The writing of one would be playful and jokey, and another would be deadly serious. Mama Bear would be a great book to read and discuss with others, but reading it on my own was a bit of a slog.

    One of the contributors is Alisa Childers. I reviewed her book, Another Gospel, here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Alisa+Childers  

🐻🧸🧸🐻

Sophomore effort, good continuation,

  Robert Thorogood's book Death Comes to Marlow is a good follow-up to his first effort. His characters are fleshed out with interesting backstories and problems. He keeps the tension throughout the book and even folds a crossword plotline. If you liked the first, you'll enjoy the second. 

Here is my review of the first book: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Robert+

🦆😵🕵️‍♀️

Third in the series, madcap fun, 

  My murder mystery book club is reading the first in the series by Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan is Killing It (review here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Finlay+Donovan) for July, but I've been reading her latest book, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun. Cosimano's writing reminds me of Janet Evanovich, with crazy characters and madcap adventures. Finlay is a reluctant mystery solver propelled by circumstances, which adds to the insanity. 

🔎🔫🔍

🫶Marriage Book, Two Murder Books🔪, and Fantasy!🦠

 

    I appreciate a self-help book that balances theory with practicum. In Reconnect: Insights and Tools for Cultivating Meaningful Connection in Your Marriage, Steven D. Call, PhD, explains how attachment theory can apply to the marriage relationship. Here is a quick idea:

Attachment theory is a lifespan model of human development emphasizing the central role of caregivers (attachment figures) who provide a sense of safety and security.(https://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html)

    The types of attachment, in descending order, are secure, anxious (or ambivalent), avoidant-dismissive, and disorganized. Our style deeply affects our relationships with others, but especially with our spouse. Stephen Call urges partners to examine their attachment style and its effects on their marriage. Then, he gives way to connecting together to move toward a secure attachment. 

    I found his education and advice helpful. One way I've directly applied this encouragement is to cease multitasking when I'm talking to my husband. This can be summed up as: Put down the phone and engage. The changes he recommends are gradual and, therefore, more long-term and lasting. 

    This book would be useful to everyone who wants to connect with others. I liked that it wasn't shaming or intimidating.

👩‍❤️‍👨🧲🫶😍

    In her fourth installment of this series, Elle Cosimano's latest Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice is beyond fast-paced, entering breakneck territory. Cosimano can make me think this can't get worse, and with a twist, it does. I enjoy these madcap, escapist reads. I rarely guess the murderer, but it's always a plausible perpetrator. 

Other Finlay Donovan book reviews: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=finlay+

🎲🎰🚔🐶

    I was surprised Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes was published in 2024 because it reads like a book from the 1950s where it's set. It has a ridiculous premise: a school where you learn how to murder someone and get away with it. There are parameters. The person you're proposing to murder must fully deserve it. The McMasters Institute prides itself on its well-rounded graduates who are fully equipped to carry out their thesis plan. Rupert Holmes wrote the Pina Colada song! The book is filled with wordplay. We don't say murder; we say delete. The students aren't murderes, they are deletist. The audiobook is read by award-winning Simon Vance and Neil Patrick Harris. 

    I found the book humorous and engaging even as I struggled with the premise that some people deserve to be killed with out due process. Those who are chosen to be deleted are horrible, horrible people it is still  one person making that decision. It bugged me.

🔪☠️🔫

    I know people who loooooove Brandon Sanderson, but he didn't land for me. Until I read Tress of the Emerald Sea. Sanderson himself confesses that Tress was a departure for him. I say, Keep going! It had many of the elements I enjoy in fantasy: considerable imagination, strong characters, sly humor, and a quirky sidekick. 

🌊💚🦠⛵️

I'm Reading Writers Who Write About Writers

The two books I read this week made me think writers can be neurotic self-absorb people--sometimes in a fun way and sometimes in a way that makes you want to stop reading mid-book to do something less depressing like read Jude the Obscure or The Road.

 

    After last week's heavy books (i-am-disturbed-war-violence-and-climate.html), I eagerly read Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano. It is the second in a series about a newly divorced, financially strapped, mother-of-two writer of romantic suspense novels. I have read a lot of mystery and suspense novels, but Cosimano kept me guessing--she does several insane plot twists--and had me laughing out loud. The book is descriptive and full of hijinks. A good combination of tension and relief that makes me like Cosimano.

    I like books that have non-standard plots. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz was recommended as that type of book. This book is also about a writer. The main character had a mildly received first book, but couldn't build on that success. When we meet him, Jacob Finch Bonner, he is bitterly teaching writing at a small-time writer's program, and he hears a fantastic plot that he's sure will be a best seller. If only he'd thought of it. The proposed book never materializes because the student dies. So Jacob writes it and becomes a best-selling author who is guilt-ridden for what he has done. Did he "steal" the plot if the original author was dead, and why is he getting threats of exposure? Korelitz writes a killer story. It reminded me of a Hitchcock movie where you are not sure things will work out for the hero. Jacob becomes frozen and depressed mid-book. It was crushing, and I considered not finishing, but I persevered and was rewarded with a stunning ending. It has a slow start, but when it catches fire, it's incredible. 

2023 Year In Review 📚📖

    I keep a list of what I've finished reading on Goodreads. I highly recommend it. I set a goal to read 100 books this year, and Goodreads says I read 138, but there might be some duplicates. 

Books that have stayed with me:

Most Poignant: Signal Fires Danielle Shapiro and Dear Edward by Anne Napolitano

Favorite Use of Multiple Narrators: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal and Trust by Hernan Diaz

Insightfully Painful: Babel R. F. Kuang and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Favorite Captivating Title: I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Surprisingly Useful Book: The Art of Making Memories by Meik Wiking

Excellent Fantasy Series: City of Brass Series by S. A. Chakraborty

Octopuses are Now My Favorite Animal: Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Africanfuturist Science Fiction Horror: Binti Series by Nnedi Okorafor

Best Audiobook: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, narrated by Meryl Streep

Best Could This Really Happen: Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Fictional Mind Blowing: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Mind Blowing Memoir: How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key

Favorite Book of the Year:

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

MY 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

really liked it

it was amazing

it was amazing

it was amazing

2x

really liked it

it was amazing

2x