Dear Readers, February was an okay month for reading . I did not complete my goal of 6 books this month, I read only four. The books I did were for the most part good. I read 1 horror, 1 mystery and 1 histoical fiction. I read one book over 1,000 pages I read 3 books from a book series Goosebumps The Haunted Mask II , Batman Knightfall Volume 1 and Blood Work from the Harry Bosch Universe. I read one 5 star book, one 4 star book, and two 3 star books.
Five Star Reviews:
Chesapeake by James A Michener is an epic historical fiction that explores 400 years of American history all about the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The novel starts out in 1583 and ends in 1978. The stories are so real, vivid, and intertwined in history that you can almost swear Michener is telling family dynasty’s through the years. This novel is deep in historical fiction and has a 13 page appendix of historical help. We get 14 vignettes or slices of life from about 5 main families and how they changed through out the years. I like that the story does not just stick to humans and tells stories of a Canadian geese migrating for the winter and a Maryland crab surviving the fresh water of the Bay. The novel starts with the American Indian, before the white man has touched the land. This epic 1,000 page book offers topics on religion, slavery, racism, poverty, farming, ship building, life, and freedom. This book taught me a lot on history and explained things history books can’t or will not it.
Four Star Reviews:
Batman: Knightfall Volume 1 by Chuck Dixon is the complete Knightfall collection 2012 edition that is over 650 pages long. This is an epic book with a epic Batman story. Bane has escaped a hellish South American prison and is set his sights on breaking the Batman to rule Gotham. Batman is pressed to his limits both mentally and psychically as Bane sets free all the the Arkham Asylum inmates who destroy Gotham. The action and weight of stress are apparent on Batman. The rising action is great leading to the breaking of the bat, and of John Paul Valley known as Azrael taking up the mantle and challenging Bane. This collection has almost all of Batman’s villains, The Joker, Killer Croc, Anarky, Catwoman, Firefly, The Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow, Two-Face, The Ventriloquist and Scarface, Victor Zsasz, Amygdala, The Riddler, and a lot of lesser know villians.
Three Star Reviews:
Blood Work by Michael Connelly is a thriller with a great hook. Solve the murder of the person who gave you the organs to survive. The novel hooked me right away. The pace of Blood Work was slower than I expected the twists are really slight until the end where there is a big one. The climax was okay I liked how personal it got at the end. Terry McCaleb was a different character than Harry Bosch but had too many of the same qualities like knowing hypnosis and breaking the rules for justice. This novel did have a lot of repetition in it. We see two murders on tape about 20 times it’s cool when there’s new information, which changes the scene, but sometimes nothing is different and someone else is just describing the scene again. Blood Work was turned into a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Daniels in 2002 which has the same set up but a different ending and bad guy. This is book 8 in the Harry Bosch Universe and book one of Terry McCaleb.
The Haunted Mask II by R. L. Stine is a sequel to the original The Haunted Mask. This is Goosebumps book 36 in the original series order. It has Carly Beth back as one of the most rememberable human characters from Goosebumps, but she is just a supporting character and one of her friends that would scare her in The original The Haunted Mask is the lead protagonist in The Haunted Mask II. It has 5 characters in total it brings back from the first that is the most recurring characters so far, after Monster Blood brought back 4 characters. The story which I will give credit is not a retelling of The Haunted Mask but has it’s own idea, the set up is the same but thing go differently. Where in the first one Carly Beth turned into the haunt, Steve is kind of haunted by his own mask. I liked the first half but the second half fell apart.
Reading with My Eyes 