Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison, 334 pages



I love me a good memoir, so when I saw this book by Holly Madison, ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, I knew it would be a good one.

Overall, it didn't disappoint. I was hooked from the very beginning--and kept on being hooked--as she described her life from rural Alaska and Oregon to Playboy Mansion to independent lady.

What made this book truly fascinating was the inside scoop of the infamous Playboy Mansion. I think you would be lying to yourself if you didn't at one point in time wonder what it was like on the inside of Hefner's complex (am I right?), and the book details every inch of it. Spoiler alert: it's not pretty. Did you really expect anything else considering that lifestyle?

Madison does an excellent job of chronicling both her life as a "Playboy bunny" and her life as a woman trying to overcome the stigma of being associated with the mansion. At times, I felt as though the writing was a bit superficial, but after spending nearly a decade in a mansion of ridicule and manipulative confinement, can you really blame her?

Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, 391 page


Catching Fire, as I'm sure it is very well known, is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It picks up roughly where the first book left off: the months following Katniss and Peeta's victory in the Hunger Games arena. The book quickly picks up steam as less of a dystopian novel and more of a revolutionary story. I am still quite amazed as to what passes as young adult subject matter, and I am increasingly anxious as to what the third book will bring in terms of tumultuous emotions.

I am still way behind the times as I finished Catching Fire. Nevertheless, I finished it, and I will finish the trilogy...once I get through a few books with an upbeat edge first.

Four to Score

Four to Score by Janet Evanovich, 294 pages

It is always a delight to read a Stephanie Plum mystery by Janet Evanovich. Such a delight, in fact, that I was laughing within the first five pages.

Just when you think things can't get any more zany or wonky in Stephanie's life, things such as using a transvestite to help her crack codes or going to Atlantic City where her ride-along grandmother, Grandma Mazur, ends up on top of a poker table to get a better view of a fleeing bounty are found within the pages. Those are just the unusual antics among the usual ones found in this series: wacky family dinners, exploding vehicles, Rex the hamster, and a gun in a cookie jar are the usual suspects.

The Stephanie Plum series is most definitely a page-turner and a satisfying read for avid mystery fans.

The Opposite of Loneliness

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan, 208 pages

Full of short fiction stories and personal essays, the premise behind this book is absolutely heartbreaking. It is so hard to put aside all knowledge of Keegan's tragic death while reading the stories that I would often find myself crying.

Long story short: Marina Keegan graduated magna cum laude from Yale, about to head into a job at The New Yorker, with a promising writing career ahead of her. Five days after graduation, she died in a car accident at 22-years old.

Her short life serves as a reminder that if a bright, successful, and promising young woman could die in a freak accident in her twenties, it could happen to any of us at any time. Her stories are also a clear illustration of what her death should be remembered as: a reminder that life is too short to be too-mired down in the complexities of the world that we completely miss the little joys that life has to offer.

No matter how cliché, that is what her life, through her writings, should be teaching us.

The Game

The Game by Laurie R. King, 368 pages

The Game is the seventh installment of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King. Long story short: Sherlock Holmes mentors a young woman, takes her on as his partner, marries her, and continues to solve mysteries with her. It's a very satisfying series for any Holmes fanatic. The series takes place after the original Holmes Canon, so the character of Baker Street we've grown to love (and become annoyed with at times) is not tainted.

The Game follows the same general pattern of the series in the sense that Russell and Holmes find themselves traveling to a different part of the world to solve some mystery or another. In this particular case, they travel to India to investigate the disappearance of a British spy. Because of the exotic locations in which King places Russell and Holmes, there is a lot of exposition, description, and musing about the locale, as told from Russell's point of view. With the setting being 1924 India, this book can definitely be classified as historical fiction as well as your run-of-the-mill mystery.

The Game is definitely worth reading, but I highly suggest reading the other books in the series first.

Asylum

Asylum by Madeline Roux, 313 pages

The concept of a novel being supported by pictures is fascinating to me. This is a young adult novel, and it has pictures! But these are not ordinary pictures. Oh, no! These pictures (or rather, photographs) enhance the story by unfathomable magnitudes.


I realize that what I am saying can also be applied to children's books or graphic novels, but the concept utilized in Asylum is much bigger! In children's books and graphic novels, the pictures really do make the story. When pictures are utilized in novels, it enhances the story.


Asylum is about, well, a summer school whose dormitories are in an abandoned mental hospital which housed grotesque "cures" on the patients. It only makes sense that a summer student (or two) would become possessed within the course of their tenure at the school. The novel by itself is creepy enough to give you nightmares, but when the novel is paired with photographs (actual, albeit somewhat edited, old photographs from asylums back in the day), be prepared for a sleepless night.


This is undoubtedly a quick and satisfying read with a cliffhanger that will leave you hungry for the sequels.

The Tao of Martha

The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster, 335 pages

This is the first Jen Lancaster book I've read, though it's certainly not the first one she wrote. I love me a good memoir, especially ones with humor, so when a friend suggested I read a Jen Lancaster book, I decided to give it a go.

Jen Lancaster writes books that are sort of classified as "self-improvement memoirs;" that is, she pursues a self-improvement project for a while and writes a memoir on her experience in a very real, very funny way. This book, The Tao of Martha, involved Lancaster channeling the goddess that is Martha Stewart for an entire year.

I'm not disappointed that I read it, but it's not exactly what I was hoping for. I guess I was hoping to have more laugh-out-loud moments, and I definitely wasn't expecting the interwoven life-struggles stories. While I was expecting the book to be more Martha-experience centric, the personal (and at times dramatic) stories really do help to flesh out the memoir.

Through her year of channeling Martha, Lancaster has definitely outlined "The Tao of Martha," and it's definitely advice that the entirety of society should channel.

Contest

Contest by Matthew Reilly, 334 pages

A co-worker recommended this book to me, and I should have known what genre it would be before I even read it: science fiction. My co-worker loves science fiction, but I'm not really a fan. Nothing personal against science fiction, but it's just not my cup of tea. The last book he recommended to me was science fiction, so I really should have known. Fool me twice, I guess.

With that being said, I am pleasantly surprised as to how much I actually enjoyed the book. The timeline of the book occurs in less than one day, and it is riveting! The action is basically nonstop, and it was because of this that the book made for a quick and exciting read.

The only downside? It involves a contest (that takes place in the New York Public Library) where the last person (or alien) who is alive wins. Normally, I suppose, this wouldn't be such a bad thing, but it can become problematic (and rather traumatizing) if you read this book directly after reading The Hunger Games (which I did).

It is worth it, though. You may just have the inexplicable desire to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar or a Dr. Seuss book afterwards, though.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, 374 pages

I hesitated to even write this blog post because this series is so popular. The hesitation is both one of not wanting to bore the reader with the beating of a dead horse and one of my unwillingness to admit how far behind the times I am. I actually began reading this book out of a happy accident because I went on vacation and finished the book I brought with me, forcing me to choose a book from my sister's bookshelf.

Happy accident or not, I am not disappointed that this was the book I chose from the bookshelf. Over the years, I have found myself to be a fan of dystopian fiction, and The Hunger Games lived up to my newly-discovered genre. The reading experience was quite different from other books I've read, however, in the sense that there's not a whole lot of dialogue. This fact makes sense when you think about how the protagonist is basically hunting by herself for most of the novel. There are definitely interesting introspective passages, and there seems to be a pronounced statement regarding class separations.

On a different note: it sincerely amazes me what counts as Youth Fiction these days. The subject material of The Hunger Games was hard enough for me to absorb (there was a death that I was particularly upset about), so it just floors me that the youth of today are reading heavy topics such as this.

The Secret of Chimneys

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie, 400 pages

As a long-time reader of Agatha Christie novels, I find myself quite used to her style...especially when it comes to Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple stories. However, The Secret of Chimneys is a Christie mystery quite abbynormal from what I'm used to in the sense that it was actually humorous. I'm not talking about the slight grin and move on kind of funny; I'm talking about the chuckle out-loud kind of funny.

Also, half the fun of mystery novels is forming your own theories as the book progresses. By the end of the novel, you've either quit your job to become a famous detective because you figured out the mystery, or you didn't quit your job because you realized that you'd make a horrible detective. In the case of Chimneys, I would be able to survive as a part-time private detective while supplementing my income with a job that actually comes with a W-2. In other words, it had the classic Christie twist that no one saw coming.

This is a great novel! I highly recommend it, and I'd even go as far as to recommend it for first-time Agatha Christie readers.

Patriot Games

Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, 540 pages

This is the first Tom Clancy book I have read, and I am ashamed to admit that I saw the movie before I read the book (please don't judge; I wouldn't do that to you). While Harrison Ford kicked butt as the main character, Jack Ryan, in the movie version, I will stick to the somewhat new adage of "the book was better."


Not only was the book better, it was also significantly different than the movie. I think I even read a tidbit of trivia that stated how Tom Clancy disassociated himself with the film after he read the script.

Tom Clancy is altogether a different bird than what I'm used to reading. While the book is packed full of action, you don't really get the sense of action-packed due to the extreme introspections and reflections each character goes through. I will admit, it did make the book go by faster for me (see 540 pages) once I figured that out and was able to skim through the sections that had little bearing on understanding the plot.

Overall, I am not disappointed that I read Patriot Games. It definitely takes patience, and one has to admire Clancy's gumption with the plot (assassination attempt of the royal family...come on!).

Cranford

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 257 pages






I had to read this book for an English Literature class, and it's not a book I would have probably chosen of my own volition. However, Cranford is a delightfully refreshing novel, full of lovely language and lacking the depressing characteristics resplendent in most novels today. Originally published as a serial in the publication "Household Works," Cranford is set in a Victorian England village (Cranford) and follows the lives of the women who reside in the village. Most of the women are older spinsters, and some of the situations in which they find themselves are hysterical. I think the novel is meant to satirize the Victorian Era mentality, so a lot of the women are overly proper despite not having a lot of money. To me, the satirizing tone (whether intentional or not) is what makes the novel wonderful.




I was not a normal child growing up, and I would often watch old television shows. One of my favorites (and still is to this day!) was "The Andy Griffith Show." The town in the television show, Mayberry, reminds me so much of the village of Cranford. It brought back fond memories with every page turn. An absolutely delightful read!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, 352 pages




When I saw the cover for this book in a bookstore, it reeked of the publishing company, Quirk Books, and I knew I had to get it. I've only read one other Quirk Books title (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), but I am well aware of their line of...well, quirky books. This book seemed right up my alley.




For an impulse purchase, this book was awesome! Even though it is classified as Youth Fiction, I really think that adults will love this book as well. I'm not entirely certain what genre it should be labeled as, though. It has historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror elements (then I guess it should appeal to a wide variety of audiences).




What makes this book so different (and so quirky!) from other books is the inclusion of vintage photographs that accompany the storyline. The photographs really add a certain flavor to the book, and I think it's a flavor everyone should sample! Dare I say there is a new genre emerging? Photo (Foto) Fiction, maybe? For the most part, the photographs splattered throughout the novel are actual, unadultered photographs. There is an index in the back of the book that credits the sources of the photographs, and the ones marked "by the author" are the unashamedly photoshopped ones.




This really is a tremendous read, even if it is read for the photographs only!

MASH

MASH by Richard Hooker, 219 pages

I am a major fan of the television series, MASH, so I was very intrigued to find out that the television series was actually based on a book. Quite honestly, I'm not surprised; it seems like everything worth watching is based on a book.

The book featured the same antics highlighted in the television series: drunken escapades, practical jokes, and debauchery. However, if you are familiar with the Alan Alda series, you will be quite surprised as to how the characters are depicted in the book. For one thing, Hawkeye Pierce is married (married?) with two kids (kids?!) in the book, and Frank Burns doesn't stick around long enough to make the reader fully loathe the character (pity).

I do recommend this book whether or not you are a fan of the series. The humor is dark at times, but war is always dark. It makes sense. While I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit, I will go on the record to state that the television series is better (the antics last for 11 seasons...how could you not love that?). Plus, the book just didn't allow me to love the characters as much as the television series. And the characters are really what makes MASH a truly wonderful form of entertainment.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal, 373 pages

Mr. Churchill's Secretary is the first book in a series about a young woman by the name of Maggie Hope. An English citizen raised in the United States, Maggie finds herself in London at the beginning of WWII in order to settle her grandmother's estate. In order to help with the war effort, she lands a job as one of Winston Churchill's typists.

Reading the author's notes in the book, the actual work conditions as a typist for the late prime minister as described in the book are factual. MacNeal read typists' biographies and was actually in contact with one of the typists before she died. Besides the working conditions and the over-arching situation of WWII, that's about where the historical facts end.

However, it is an absolutely delightful novel. The character of Maggie Hope becomes the character of James Bond, only with estrogen! Even though you will find this in the fiction section, I really think it has all of the elements of a good mystery. I also found that, everytime I thought that the book was about to end, another twist was added that made me want to turn each tantalizing page until the end. I spent many late nights with this book!