I Did It Again

I started a book that had horror mentioned as one of the genera listings.  The book was "Abandon" by Blake Crouch.  Since I have Amazon Prime, it was the book I borrowed for May.  It had a really interesting premise-all the people of a small mining town in Colorado disappeared on Christmas Eve a hundred years ago.  It was very well-written.  It went back and forth between current time people and those of the town back the hundred years.  Even though I found the book disturbing, I had to keep reading to find out how it ended.  And I could not just jump to the end to see how it ended.  You had to go step-by-step with the author.  The few days that I was reading it, it was on my mind and in my dreams.  I think it will be a while before I get this one off my mind.  And yet, it was a satisfying book.  The author did not leave  a lot of loose ends.  I really like that.  So, for those who like horror, it was a great book but I hope I don't ready any more like that.  When will I learn?

Note To Self

Note to Self:  Do not read zombie book before going to sleep.  Two nights of disturbed sleep is enough.  I have been reading "The Creepers" by Norman Dixon.  It has a good premise and reasonable post-apocalyptic situation.  However, it is too disturbing and I realized why.  It is too horribly realistic.  I cannot denigrate Mr. Dixon's writing ability but I am not going to finish this book.  

On the other hand, I just finished W. Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge".  I loved it.  It is an older book, and the copy I had was falling apart.  I literally had to hold it together to read it.  Maugham relates the story of a man who was disillusioned by war and sought the meaning of life.  You feel as though Maugham is sitting at a table with you telling the story.  You feel as though you know the people he talks about. He writes in an unhurried way, which I find refreshing.  I wish I had discovered this author earlier.  I thought it was interesting to read about his life.  It helps to see where he is coming from in his writing.  I am going to search for more of his books.

Out of Character

I enjoy reading "The Destroyer" series.  I have been told this is totally out of character for me. In delving into my book horde, I found the "#103 Engines of Destruction".  I love the tongue-in-cheek humor as well as the not always so subtle social commentary.  The premise is that an American is trained by an ancient Korean master to be an assassin.  It is less believable than a science fiction book, but I don't care.  In a subtle way, they make you think.  

Desperate For Something to Read

     On a recent trip to a third world country, we rented a house.  Wi-fi service and electricity were not a constant.  In searching the house for books to read, I found that most of the ones there were written before the 60's.  Okay, there were authors that I had wanted to read so was not destitute.  I read "A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemmingway.  The book was about when he lived in Paris.  Only he was writing it 20 to 30 years later.  It makes you wonder how accurate his memories were.  His descriptions of some of the famous people he knew then-could the intervening years have changed his opinion of them?  Hard to draw the line at what you think of someone 25 years ago.  I enjoyed the book.  His deceptively simple method of writing hit on some things that made me think.  That is a good thing. 
     Another book I have always been curious about was "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen.  The tone of the book struck me as a very rose-colored view of Africa and its people.  She did have a marvelous way of creating pictures with words.  Shame on me, but I did not finish that book.  It was not something I could read a lot of at once and ran out of time.
     There were 4 other books I read but only one of them really stayed in my memory.  That was "Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal" by Conor Grennan. The desperate straits of children during war is heart-rending.  He did an admirable job of describing his frivolous reasons for volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal and the painful journey to the point where he had lost his heart to the orphans and was compelled to help them.  Hmmm-this was about a third world country.  I wonder how often our current circumstances effect what we are drawn to read.

Revenge

"Innocent Little Crimes" by C. S. Lakin was depressing a good deal of the time, but resonated with its message that we all create ourselves by lots of little acts.  Revenge was looked at under a microscope and the fact that once you attain it, what is left?  I did like the preceding situations of the main characters and the after situations.  I hate being left to wonder too much.  You knew some one was going to die but not who or why.  I would recommend it.  I would be curious as to whom the main character reminded you of.

The Plague

Frank Herbert's book "The Plague" left me with "Wow!".  It was very thought-provoking and rather scary in that it could happen.  This was written in the 80's-a time before a lot of the technology he mentions was a reality.  A scientist gets revenge when his wife and children were killed in a bomb set by the IRA in England.  He creates a virus that only kills women.  There are lengthy descriptions of the methods of altering dna.  I could have just taken his word, but true science fiction fans would appreciate the details.  Toward the end I was skipping over that.  For Shame!  And his ongoing explanations of the Irish angst was a little much.  However, the scary part is you could totally see the world's reactions in the way he explained.  And right now there is a meningitis fungal killer caused by contaminated medicine.  I have got to stop reading apocalyptic novels.  It is just too scary.  Oh, did I mention I am reading the book "The Island-Fallen Earth" by Michael Stark?  They do it in parts, doggone it, but the second part is when I really got spooked.  

Criteria

Have been thinking a lot lately of the criteria that I subconsciously use to determine if I like a book or not.  When you are an omnivorous (bless spellchecker!) reader, are there certain characteristics in all types of books make it a good read? 
1.  Before you even start reading, does the review of the book sound like a thinly veiled copy of another best seller?  It may be a good book, but sorry - I am tired of teenage girl who's boyfriend is a vampire, werewolf, etc.  Also tired of Harry Potter clones where the boy is pitifully downtrodden and finds he has magic powers. Even the Hunger Games theme is starting to wear thin. I will use the book I just finished for my model, since it is the one that coalesced my criteria train of thought.  The book "Past Perfect" by Susan Isaacs was one I traded for at the campground laundry room so did not get on Amazon.  Love it that at most campgrounds they have books you can trade.  Okay, the cover review stated that the heroine had been fired from the CIA but was never told why.  It is now 15 years later and she is writing scripts for a tv spy show.  A semi-fresh plot, okay!
2.  As I read, do I want to know what the ending is?  Do I even care?  If I am well into the book and still don't care how it ends, I usually stop reading it.  This one I wanted to know why she got fired.  It was something you could really relate to.
3.  Can I relate to the hero?  Sometimes they are so obnoxious you don't care what happens to them.  You don't want someone perfect.  That gets boring fast. So, yes, the woman in this book was believable and likable, even with her flaws.  I loved that in her thoughts she would think worst case scenarios and best case scenarios.  Too human.  There was humor, but not overdone.
4.  Did I think about the book when I was not reading it?  Did I ponder what might happen and what the end might be?  Yes.
5.  Was I really into the story and did not put the book down?  Translation:  Did I snarl at anyone who bothered me while I was reading?  Did I put off doing other things so I could read one more chapter?  Yep!
 6.  Was there enough typos and grammatical errors that it really detracted from the flow of the book?  That can become quite annoying.  Too many errors pull you back to the surface of the book.  If this book had them, I did not notice.  
7.  Did I like the ending? Was it satisfying?  Some books really let you down at the end.  I don't care how realistic it may be, I want a decent ending.  In "The Hunger Games" third and final book, it was the best ending that could come out of the situation.  Through the book, I kept thinking this just can't have a good ending.  It was definitely an anticlimax. Jules Verne was known to have written very depressing endings to his stories, and his publisher would make him rewrite them on a more upbeat note.  As to "Past Perfect", the ending was quite satisfying.
I was going to add an 8th item, but changed my mind.  It would have been, "Was I helped by others' reviews?  Sometimes.  Ironically, since I did not get this on line, I had not read the reviews.  I was dismayed when I later did, and they were pretty negative.   Would I have read this book if I had read the reviews first? I don't know.
Is there anything else that might determine the worth of a book?