The Beginning of the Summer Reads

I usually enjoy a good, easy beach read and Erin Hillenbrand is one of my favorite authors from this genre. This book definitely was not one of her best. The story is about Tess and Greg MacAvoy, their lives, their loves, their friends and ultimately their deaths. Greg and Tess go for a sail to celebrate 12 years of marriage and never come back. There is some mystery involved - a chunk of her hair missing, toxicology reports coming back with unexpected results, etc.... Hillenbrand does a good job of selling the mystery. The reader wants to know what happened on that boat and why. The trouble is, you have to wade through 300 pages of crap about miscellaneous characters that you never truly care a thing about, to get to those answers. What a let down.

My Russian Fascination Must Be Over

I have an intense interest in all things Russian. I love Rand, Solzhenitsyn, tales of Anastasia and all Russian history. This book though left me colder than the steppes of Siberia. The premise is that the older daughter of the deceased Rasputin, Masha, is called to the aid of the young czarevich, Alexi. History tells us that young Alexi was a hemopheliac and that Rasputin, a revered holy man and believed healer was entrusted by the Romanov family with the care of the young czarevich. The story had some interesting details in it, but was otherwise almost completely unbelievable. I had little care for the character of Masha and the only one who seemed even human to me was Alexi, whom Masha calls by another name. Seriously, even if you are a history buff and love Russian history, I wouldn't waste my time.

The Fall of the House of Walworth

This book was plugged as a real life "Fall of the House of Usher" - notice the similarities in the name alone. This is the story of Manfield Walworth, an author of little note, and his wife, Ellen and their son, Frank.
Manfield and Ellen had a sordid relationship that included, but was not limited to many episodes of domestic violence.
Frank, through concern for his mother, commits the most heinous crime of all - patricide.

I wanted to hear more aobut what drove Frank to commit this terrible crime. Much was alluded to, including an inappropriate relationship between their father and Frank's younger sisters. Little was actually stated though.
The book starts out with the murder and some minor background details. After Frank is arrested, the author goes off on some historical tangent - going back and discussing even Mansfield's father and his marriage, political associations and more. How is this relevant to the story at hand? It was never clear.
I have to say that, as of today, December 17, this book has earned the dubious distinction of being the biggest Stinker of the year.

Fluke or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

I picked this book because, well, deep down I really am a whale lover. I don't know too many people, women especially, who aren't. The book is about a man who is a researcher working out of Hawaii trying to discover what makes the male humpback sing. The initial part of the book was very good. Nate, the main character of the book, was trying to uncover what exactly whales are communicating, if anything, in their song.
Things get dicey when Nate gets a little too close to unveiling the truth about the whales.

That is when things took a turn for the weird. When Amelia Earheardt showed up, I threw in the towel. Some readers say that this work is amazing funny and I guess if you enjoy the BIZARRE then this work is for you. As for me, I think that while the author is advocating for conservation, when you take a serious subject matter that you supposedly support and turn it into a big joke, I believe that you do your cause a disservice.

I honestly can not think of a single person that I would recommend this book to, and considering my love of the written word, that my friends says it all.