Publisher: Simon & Schuster NYC Page Count: 184 Fiction Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery Dates Read: May 30 - June 4, 2015 Summary Frank is not a normal child. Well, he is, for the most part, but he hasn't had a normal childhood. First, his mother abandoned him when he was only a few days old. Second, his father never submitted his birth to the national registry (a crime that could send his father to a Scottish prison for years). Lastly, Frank was in a tragic accident when he was a toddler, which has effected his physical growth development. Because Frank's father failed to register him with the government, he has had spend his life avoiding the town, staying on the families little island, and pretending that his father is only his uncle that he visits on occasion. Meanwhile, Frank has had to deal with his older brother, Eric, who was locked for torturing the young children in town and setting the communities dogs on fire. Eric has just escaped from his mental institution and is heading home. Determined to make it back before he is caught, Frank has to figure out what he'll do if and when Eric actually does make it back to their island. In the meantime, Frank insists his father has been keeping a secret from him, and he needs to find out what it is, all while dealing with his own dark and disturbing past. The real questions is, who is the real sociopath in this story? Review This book was a chore to get through. It is a sick and twisted journey down a path of gender issues, mental health, and sociopaths behaviors. This book, while good on its own merits, is extremely dark and very disturbing. It's as though Banks spent weeks profiling serial killers to learn what their childhoods were like, and how they felt after killing someone or torturing animals. The scariest part of this book, is how believable it is that this could actually happen; that these humans could be walking the Earth right now. I was so wrapped up in the moment with this book that I did not see the final twist coming at the end. Banks has provided us with a very well written novel, that is dark and disturbing to the core. Rankings (based on a 10 point scale) Quality of Writing - 7 Pace - 4 Plot Development - 5 Characters - 6 Enjoyability - 5 Insightfulnes - 5 Ease of Reading - 4 Photos/Illustrations - N/A Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 stars
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Publisher: Penguin Books Page Count: 288 Nonfiction Genre: Science, Astronomy, Space, History Dates Read: May 27 - June 4, 2015 Summary What do you truly know about our universe? Do you know when Saturn was discovered? Do you know why Mercury is named Mercury? Do you know the complicated political atmosphere of being a woman in the search of space, especially before the 1980s? Did you know that it is highly unlikely that Jupiter is more than just a ball of gas without a solid surface anywhere in its makeup? Dava Sobel takes us on an adventure through time and space (Doctor Who reference, anyone?). She starts with the sun, and works her way out through the solar system, well past Pluto. She tells us great histories of the planets, their discoveries, and the reasoning behind a lot of the names. Review I bet most of this stuff Sobel discusses in her book was never taught to any of us beyond a high school science class. Even my college Astronomy class didn't touch on many of these things. I cannot express how beautiful this book is. Sobel tells colorful stories filled with history, mythology, and feeling. In some moments, I felt like I was standing there with some of their scientists as they made their discoveries, and like I could feel the overwhelming joy that overtook these scientists when another discovery came to light. Each planet (including the sun, moon, and a couple non-planets) are given their own individual chapter, with the exception of Uranus and Neptune, which has a strong need to be combined. Each chapter gives a unique voice to the entity it is representing. My favorite perspective was that of Mars, which was told in the first person, as though Mars was telling its own story. Each chapter has the history of the planet, how it came to be, how it was discovered, the mythology behind the names, as well as being loaded with tons of facts and details pertaining to the planet. My favorite chapter was Jupiter's because of the insightful detail Sobel provided us, and I felt like there was so much I did not know or understand about this planet. On the flip side, I found Earth's chapter to be the least entertaining, because it covered the history of Earth, including the discovery of each piece of land on the planet; a lot of information that has been thrown at us since primary school history and geography classes. No mater what, this book is beautifully written and full of insight. Ratings (based on a 10 point scale) Quality of Writing: 9 Pace: 8 Plot Development: 5 Characters: 6 Enjoyablility: 8 Insightfulness: 9 Ease of Reading: 9 Photos/Illustrations: N/A Overall: 5 out of 5 stars |
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