Book Review: "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith

As the first installment in a trilogy, Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 was an intriguing historical thriller that I couldn't stop reading. A friend first mentioned the book to me as a passing recommendation, and then I saw the preview for the film based on the book starring Tom Hardy. In true fan girl fashion, and what has become my preferred way to view films based on books, I sought out a copy of Child 44.

Initially, I didn't know what I had gotten myself into as the book started out with a scene that seemed disjointed from the main narrative. The book starts with a scene following two brothers as they try to trap and kill a stray cat in the woods so they can bring it home to their mother and eat it. They are starving, it's the middle of WWII, and the people of Russia have resorted to things worse than eating rats to survive the unrelenting hunger.

Then, the narrative shifts and we are vaulted twenty years into the future. The third person omniscient point of view allows the exploration of many of the character's thoughts, but the narrative most closely follows a high ranking M.G.B. officer by the name of Leo Demidov, whose perspective is shaped by the brain washed blur of Stalinism. As a member of the secret police, Leo fears his own colleagues and upward mobility as much as the general public fears him. To the reader, and to the general public of Stalinist Russia, Leo is a symbol of all that is wrong with the Soviet Union. I began to question why I was following this man and his blind belief for such a flawed ideology.

Movie vs. Book: "Wild: Raw and Real"

I'm going to start this off by saying that I was pretty sure this movie would have significant voice over. I expected passages from the book read over top of scenes, Reese Witherspoon's voice retelling Cheryl Strayed's powerful journey across the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Instead, what I got was probably more true to the actual journey itself; a sense of silence and introspection. Cheryl Strayed wrote her memoir about her hike on the PCT nearly twenty years after the hike occurred (click here to read my book review). Nick Hornsby adapted her story into a smart screenplay brought to soul stirring life by Jean-Marc Vallee.

Strayed struck out on the journey by herself with no sense of what she was about to endure physically or psychologically. She walked to return to her self. She walked to remember who she was and to find out who she had become after the devastating death of her mother. Cheryl's life spiraled downward and deconstructed her marriage, her path in college and her faith in any God that might exist. She was a hollow person seeking to fill herself through reckless sex and drug abuse. Her decision to hike the PCT undoubtedly saved her life.

Book Review: "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

In times of national economic upheaval the public seeks escapism. Some have credited Shirley Temple films with helping pull the nation's mood up out of the Great Depression. In this day and age we are no strangers to the economic chaos that surrounds us and the faceless corporations that seem to be gaining more and giving less. Ernest Cline's Ready Player One is strangely visionary in that it provides us with a foreboding future in which nearly all of humanity is destitute and starving. Their only escape is an immersive virtual world called the OASIS, but now even that is at risk of being taken over by a corporation that wants to make the OASIS exclusive and expensive.

The OASIS was developed by a brilliant billionaire with Asperger's by the name of James Halliday. Halliday invents the OASIS as a place where people can go and interact and learn under assumed identities using Avatars. The OASIS grows, spawning worlds full of games and challenges, but it also has its practical uses for business, news, and education. The most important thing to the protagonist of the story, Wade Watts, is that education in the simulated world is free. Not just free of cost, but free of bullies that made his real-life schooling experience a nightmare. 

What sets this story into motion is the death of James Halliday. For it us upon this fateful day that Halliday's avatar Anorak, announces to the world that he has arranged a contest open to everyone within the OASIS to uncover the Easter Egg that is the key to his fortune and power over the OASIS. Halliday programs three keys to three gates within the expansive universe of the OASIS, and he provides the public with the first clue to find the first key. And thus the race for the Egg begins. 

Book Review: "The Girl on the Mountain" by Carol Ervin

It's 1899, and May Rose Long has just been abandoned by her husband in the mountains of West Virginia. Isolated from the logging town of Winkler and ostracized by the townspeople due to rumors of indecent behavior; May Rose tries desperately to connect with her family that headed West to Fargo, North Dakota.

Ervin is capable of creating a story around May Rose that is surprisingly entertaining and revealing of the position of women in society during this time in history. May Rose is known as the Girl on the Mountain because she is accused of standing naked and waving at the train of logging men as they passed her house every day. The rumor is the catalyst for everything that happens in the story, including her husband's disappearance. But May Rose was far from happily married, and while her husband kept her secluded from the town, buying the cabin with her dowry, she had only herself to rely upon most of the time while he stayed in the logging camp.

Ervin captures the grueling details of May Rose's survival and shows a vast knowledge of what mountain life consists of in the late 19th century. I was able to get a real feel for the setting and loved the descriptions of May Rose's different labors; from gardening to raising hogs and washing clothes. When May Rose's husband does not come home and she finds out what happened to him, a new part of her character opens up. We discover she's an intelligent woman and quite capable of forging her way into town and coming up with her own plan of survival.

"The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah

"If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

Kristin Hannah opens her newest novel, The Nightingale, with this sentence that acts as the driving theme in her WWII portrait of women during war. Hannah's main characters are sisters with a fractured past. Their bond is tenuous before the war, and nearly breaks entirely once the Nazi's invade France. The elder sister is Vianne Mauriac, a devoted mother and wife who fights her war at home in Carriveau, where a Nazi has billeted at her home while her husband is in a work camp in Germany. Isabelle Rossignol is the impetuous younger sister whose anger about the war drives her toward the French Resistance. 

The Nightingale is by no means literary fiction. When I say that, I mean that there is no prose so beautiful that it resonates with your soul, however, this is an excellent story with an emotionally powerful narrative. Hannah's body of work up until this point has dealt with interpersonal relationships and emotional "chic-lit." The Nightingale has taken Hannah's storytelling to a different level. The writer even admitted in an interview with Goodreads that this story was the most difficult for her to write, but it was a story that would not let her rest.

Book Review: "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel's fourth novel, Station Eleven, arrived with much anticipation among fans of the dystopian genre. With as saturated as the dystopian genre (or Speculative Fiction) is at the moment, Station Eleven definitely stands apart from the rest, but not in the way you would expect.

The story begins with a death. A famous 51-year-old actor by the name of Arthur Leander drops dead on stage of a massive heart attack during a performance of Shakespeare's King Lear. The actor's tragic death is soon overshadowed when a pandemic called the Georgia Flu effectively wipes out about 99% of the world's population. The web of characters that this story focuses on are all connected through Arthur Leander. Mandel does an excellent job of dropping hints, piquing interest and weaving this web of interconnection which snaps into focus at the climax of the story.

The character perspectives change as the story unfolds, so parts of the story take place before the world is forever altered by the Georgia Flu. In these chapters we get to know Arthur, his upbringing, his struggle as an actor, and the turbulent relationships with his many wives, but mainly his first wife, Miranda Carroll. Miranda, hailing from the same tiny island as Arthur, is fresh out of an abusive relationship when Arthur sweeps her away to Los Angeles. L.A. life could not be any less suited to anyone as it is for Miranda, and she throws herself into her creative endeavors to escape the resultant unhappiness of her lonely marriage.

Book Review: "Serena" by Ron Rash

Ron Rash's acclaimed novel Serena (2008) was a unique reading experience. I've been thinking about how to write this book review for a while now because of how mixed my feelings are about the whole of the novel. I liked it, however, there was a tension thrumming beneath the story the entire time that I felt was never fully realized. The amount of tension achieved with the use of symbolism, fatalism, mounting greed and obsession was all brought to a climax that didn't measure up to the painstakingly deliberate rising action. This is my opinion of course, and I'm sure there are many people who would disagree.

Serena takes place just after the stock market crash as the country dives deep into the Great Depression. The story is set in the mountains of Western North Carolina where Mr. Pemberton has just arrived with his new bride, Serena. The power couple intend to strip the mountains of its lumber and exploit the cheap labor of the locals and travelers who arrive in boxcars every day.

The story is told in alternating limited third person perspective, but none of those perspectives are those of the title character. Rash's decision to eliminate Serena's voice elevates her to more of a force that preys on and plagues the lives of the characters we do get to know. It's a bold choice. Is it entirely successful? I think that depends on the reader.

Show vs. Book: "Outlander: A Book Made Better"

I wanted to like this book. It came highly recommended and a couple of social media friends were astonished I'd never read it. When I finally started reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, I was actually very surprised at how difficult it was for me to feel engaged in the narrative. The story, the plot, is very interesting, but the actual narrative delivery fell woefully flat for me as a reader. I felt as though there was no tension in the text and no heightened emotion experienced by the narrator Claire Randall. I mean, the woman fell through a rock with mystical power and lands 200 years in the past and yet I didn't feel a thing from her emotionally...I didn't care.

I pushed myself to read this book, because I wanted to like it. It's well researched, and the actual history of the English dominion over Scotland and the rebellion that was to follow was appealing. I also enjoyed learning about Clan politics. Claire, who'd been a field nurse for Britain in WWII, has a knowledge of healing and herbal remedies, so I liked that aspect of the book as well. But I had a huge problem with Claire. Even though she'd had an interesting childhood traveling around with her archaeologist uncle, had been a nurse, was sexually aware and had fallen through time after witnessing an ancient Druid ceremony - I found her to be an incredibly one note character.

Book Review "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. When I say beautifully written, I am mainly focusing on the detail of the language. Every writer has a different style and a different writing process, but Doerr's attention to word choice in creating beautiful images is meticulous. For anyone who has gone through a writing workshop I will say it like this: Doerr took the scalpel to his writing and pared down the language for a clean and crisp delivery of description and metaphor like in poetry. It took Doerr ten years to write this book, and I felt that time and deliberation in every chosen word.

This type of literary lyricism isn't for every reader and neither is the cutting back in forth through time in the narrative. The third person present tense allows this kind of movement through time, but if a reader isn't paying close attention they may be thrown by unidentified shifts in the story's timeline.

The narrative is primarily told from the limited perspectives of two characters that are only children as WWII encroaches, and are teenagers when the war ends. Marie-Laure LeBlanc is the blind daughter of the locksmith at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. If you are familiar with WWII history, or perhaps The Monuments Men, then you may have heard that upon the Nazi invasion of France all of the precious works of art that define human culture throughout time were hunted down for inclusion in Hitler's own Fuhrermuseum that would be the pinnacle of all culture as he saw it. However, the French knew the German's were coming and they took certain precautions. Marie-Laure's father is part of the Museum of Natural History's contingency plan. So, upon the occupation of Paris, he and Marie-Laure flee the city and wind up with his WWI shell-shocked Uncle Etienne in the coastal town of Saint-Malo carrying something precious with them.

Book Review: "The Glass Magician" by Charlie N. Holmberg

I was really looking forward to this sequel to Holmberg's The Paper Magician, which I reviewed here. The first book served as an introduction to Holmberg's magical world in which magicians bond with specific materials through which they work their magic. However, the first story left me wanting in many areas of world building and character development. I gave Holmberg some leniency in my review because this was her debut novel and I held out hope that the sequel would fill in some of those areas of weakness.

The Glass Magician picks up shortly after the events of the first book, and we once again follow Ceony Twill through her apprenticeship with Emory Thane, The Paper Magician. Ceony's feelings for Thane have blossomed into a love that she eventually convinces herself to be one-sided. Her feelings for Thane become her mind's preoccupation, and the lovesick internal monologue grows a bit tedious. The only thing that distracts Ceony from her pining are the very imminent death threats and attempts on her life.

Book Review: "The Moonlight Palace" by Liz Rosenberg

I'm a fan of historical fiction and book deals, so when Liz Rosenberg's The Moonlight Palace popped up on my Amazon recommendations - I bought it. I actually ended up getting a discounted Audible version of the story as well and started listening to it on my daily commute. I really enjoyed listening to a professional narration with correct annunciation and the performance of accents - it really brought the story to life in my mind.

The Moonlight Palace is narrated by a teenager by the name of Agnes "Aggie" Hussein. Aggie lives in Singapore in the 1920's in a dilapidated palace called the Kampong Glam. The Hussein family was once a kind of royalty and the palace was once an opulent relic handed to her family in exchange for the family handing Singapore over to the British. Now the family lives in poverty, the palace is in ruins, and Aggie is facing the very real possibility that she may lose her family home; a home that is ingrained in her blood.

Book Review: "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

I've been trying to catch up on some of the classics I never read in school, and Slaughterhouse-Five is one of those books. I'm actually glad I didn't read this in high school, because I wouldn't have been able to comprehend all of its themes. Part autobiography, part absurd, part satire, part science fiction and part war drama - this isn't a story that fits neatly into any specific genre. I can imagine that the first mention of Billy Pilgrim coming unstuck in time and his alien abduction by the Tralfamadorians would cause some readers to close the book and push it away. However, it is this plot aspect that not only functions as an example of Billy's war warped mind, but also as a narrative tool used by Vonnegut to tell a non-linear story.

The narrator of the story is Kurt Vonnegut, he doesn't call himself Kurt Vonnegut, but after listening to an interview with him, I can say with authority that the narrator is a man writing a story about a man writing a story about the WWII massacre at Dresden (very postmodern meta-fiction). The frame story is told in first person perspective and introduces us to the historical event that was the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany. The narrator/Vonnegut talks about how hard it has been to write a story about Dresden, "because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." So what follows is Vonnegut's disjointed tale of Billy Pilgrim that doesn't feel disjointed at all, but rather a well composed and complete story that isn't told in chronological order. You have to be a really good writer to pull off this kind of story telling and make your reader feel like the story couldn't have been told any other way, despite the absurdity of it all. 

Book Review: "The Paying Guests" by Sarah Waters

There was once a time when I despised British Literature. I declared my track in college as "Contemporary American Literature," and left the likes of Tristam Shandy and Pamela in my dust. I appreciated the Romantic and the Gothic era, but I still preferred American Lit. However, I really love what's coming from British writers these days. Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, pushed me into a new reading pool that I absolutely adore, and Sarah Waters has now deepened my affection.

The Paying Guests takes place in London in 1922. Anything written between 1900-1945 already has my attention because I'm fascinated by this time in History. London is still in tatters after the first World War, veterans are broken men with menial prospects, and once prominent families face the reality of their wavering wealth. Frances Wray lives in the upper-class neighborhood of Champion Hill, only with the loss of her two brothers in the war and her father to bad health, she and her mother are left with a large old house they can't afford and a former lifestyle they can't maintain. The Wrays lost their wealth due to bad investments and now must take on "paying guests" to stay afloat. 

Book Review: "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed

There's something about the vulnerability inherent in the art of memoir that makes reading them an exploration of the human condition. My exposure to memoir has been limited, but every time one of these stories lands on my reading list I know I am in for a special kind of journey. Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a gritty and honest reflection of the author's months log journey by foot across California and into Oregon on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Strayed took to the trail during the great meltdown of her life. Her mother died from cancer at the age of 45 which sent her into a grief driven downward spiral resulting in cheating on her husband, a heartbreaking divorce and a heroin addiction. All of this is revealed to the reader in flashbacks as Strayed makes progress on the trail. Strayed's prose is deliberate and clear, which makes following this clueless 26-year-old on a dangerous solo journey through the pacific wilderness a little less infuriating than if she attempted to sugar coat all of her reckless decisions.

Book Review: "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel Oryx and Crake was published back in 2003. I don't know how I managed to read so much dystopian fiction, including Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and never came across this trilogy. I've remedied that oversight.

Oryx and Crake is set in the future and follows a man who goes by the name of Snowman who may just be be the last human alive. Snowman lives as a kind of guardian of the Crakers, a genetically modified humanoid species that he has liberated from their life in a dwindling habitat under a great dome of biological experimentation. As we follow Snowman's (Jimmy's) depressing daily routine and slow starvation we are introduced to his back story, and hence the back story of this broken world. The structure of the story clips back and forth between the story of Jimmy's childhood and early adulthood and Snowman's journey into wild territory to forage for survival supplies.

Some readers may not like the back and forth structure, but the sections flow seamlessly into one another. The pace is aided by this structure and is relentless in the unfolding of the greater story. Atwood excels in making Jimmy a well realized character with a childhood spent living in corporate science established compounds. These compounds are the gated communities of the elite set apart from the pleeblands where the general population resides. Such social stratification already exists in many ways, so Atwood is merely enhancing the nightmarish possibilities that could emerge from unchecked biological science and corporate influence.

Book Review: "The Paper Magician" by Charlie N. Holmberg

Charlie N. Holmberg's debut novel, The Paper Magician, is the first installment in a series that I will definitely continue to read due to its undeniable charm. Harry Potter fans will likely enjoy this story for its glimpses of another structured magical world, and fans of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus will enjoy the whimsical romance element. The ease of read makes this a quick getaway when compared to something complex in terms of language like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. So if you're looking for a story with some unique magic, romantic gestures, and the inherent darkness that accompanies power all steeped in a yet to be fully explored magical world, then this could be your next read.

Ceony Twill makes a compelling heroine in the story, showing up at Paper Magician Emery Thane's house to pursue an apprenticeship after graduating top in her class from a magical academy. However, Ceony's not too thrilled to be bonded to the element of paper as it was her dream to work with metal. And here is one of the most interesting parts of this world that begins to unfold: magicians magically bond with a particular object and from there on out their magic is worked through that object. Ceony begrudgingly makes her bond with paper, but her feelings toward folding, which is the paper magician's way of working magic, soon begins to change.

Book Review: "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

The experience of what is so commonly referred to as 'coming-of-age' defines a time in life when your decisions carry more weight in designing who you are and who you are becoming. Your parents are no longer the prime decision makers in your life, it is up to you to mold your future - it is the true release of childhood and all the careless freedom it now comes to represent. Gayle Forman's If I Stay is a compelling coming-of-age story embedded in a present moment narrative of unfolding tragedy.

Seventeen-year-old, Mia Hall, wakes up on a snow day from school surrounded by her now-tame punk rock parents, that sound a bit like Northwestern hipsters, and her adoring younger brother Teddy. It's Mia's senior year of high school and she views her family's warmth and eccentricity as one of the things she will miss most if she ends up going to college at Julliard in a few months. The family decides to take advantage of their stolen day off from the responsibilities of life, like giddy children, and use it to visit with friends and family in their Oregon hometown.

Book vs. Movie "Gone Girl": As Good As The Book

It's rare that a movie stands up to the experience of a book, it's even more rare when a movie is capable of enhancing the experience of the book to create a truly fulfilling cinematic experience. I found this to be the case with David Fincher's Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn, the author of the best-selling book the movie is based upon (which I reviewed here) wrote the screenplay, so I know that has a lot to do with the success of the adaptation. However, it's what Fincher is able to squeeze out of the material visually that makes this movie something dark, suspenseful and likely to disturb audiences unfamiliar with the original material. Even from the opening credits, the restless pace of flashing locations, with names fading as quickly as they appeared was setting the pace for this twisted and fast moving thriller.

The film starts out with Nick Dunne, played to smug perfection by Ben Affleck, describing how when he thinks about his wife, he thinks about her head and cracking it open to try to understand what she's thinking. At this movie's core is a dark piece of relationship drama that anyone in a relationship can identify with: can you ever really know the person you are with? Think of all the trust it requires to lay your sleeping bones in bed with someone every night and believe that you know them and the love you share well enough to wake up okay the next day. Relationships often begin with each participant putting their best foot forward, living up to an image of the person they think they should be to keep the other happy. A lot of relationships end on a disastrous note due to this projection of falseness and the eventual discovery of who the person "really is."

Movie vs. Book "The Maze Runner": Action Trumps Heart

By now, I suppose most people are either on the YA train or they don’t give a shit about it. I happen to be on that train, and not only do I inundate my reading repertoire with YA fiction, but I also watch the movies that studios have been popping out to a diminishing demand. Statistics, like hips, don't lie. YA movies, with the exception of The Hunger Games and that long ago saga of glittering vamps, consistently underperform in the box office. However, The Maze Runner actually came out on top at the box office its first weekend with $32.5 million, targeting a mostly male audience.

I’m glad teenagers are reading, and it makes sense that Hollywood would want to tap into the trending dystopian and paranormal fiction that dominates the genre. I mean, we need only look back to the explosion of the Harry Potter universe to understand that there is something magical behind books coming to life on the screen. It’s this adaptation from written story to screen that I want to focus on, because I find the adaptation of works of art through several different mediums absolutely fascinating. What makes the cut in the film? What parts of the story are molded differently to fit a tighter timeline in cinema? What depth from narrative can be portrayed through a well configured scene? What tones and themes can be relayed with nothing more than cinematography and score?

Book Review: "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner

If you haven't tired of young adults in peril in dystopian worlds, then James Dashner's The Maze Runner may be worth your attention. The book is packed full of action and fast paced turn of events that keep the pages turning. The Maze Runner definitely suffers from characters who are seemingly erratic and inconsistent in their emotional reactions to the events that unfold, and while I'd like to contribute this to the life threatening situations that arise (and hormones), I really felt this issue was embedded in the writing and wasn't true to the characters.

Despite some of these character attribute shortcomings, I was immediately drawn into the plot of the story. We follow the perspective of a teenager named Thomas as he wakes up in an elevator lift with no memory of his personal past. He knows his name and he thinks he knows his intuitive self, but as the lift doors open and he is thrust into a group of sixty teenage boys - his internal propulsion to find out what is going on goes against the society these boys have already constructed.

Book Review: "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James

The infamous Fifty Shades of Grey. Perhaps it was curiosity or blunt force trauma to the head, but this former Literature major decided to go slumming. My motivation doesn't really matter, what does matter is the fact that not only did I read this book, but I am also reading the second book in the trilogy. My enjoyment of the text has little to do with the quality of writing and everything to do with mindless entertainment. Sometimes you just need an escape, you know, an escape into a virgin's mind when she meets a man of god-like attractiveness who lures her into an erotic sexscape of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism (BDSM).

Anastasia Steele is about to graduate from college when she interviews Christian Grey, a young corporate billionaire, as a favor to her journalism savvy roommate, Katherine Kavanagh. If those names make you want to roll your eyes then welcome to my head. Ana is an innocent who has never had a boyfriend, never had sex and never masturbated. Meeting Christian is like flipping a light switch, and suddenly Ana becomes very aware of her own sexuality in proximity to him. Christian, for whatever reason (I suspect virgin radar) is intensely attracted to Ana and commences stalking her. Christian is well aware of his dark and twisted ways and warns Ana that he is dangerous and she should stay away from him, but then he continues to stalk her. Talk about mixed signals.

Book Review: "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Photo: Metrokids

Ransom Rigg's debut novel is an interesting exploration of young adult dark fantasy. With a narrative that is more focused on the art of an unfolding mystery and less with the speed of an action or thriller the novel feels like a gentle introduction to a new world of peculiar experiences.

The novel's protagonist, Jacob Portman, is a believable loner who doesn't feel connected to his teenage existence. Jacob's emotional angst isn't foreign to the teenage experience, but Riggs navigates this disconnection between Jacob and his assumed path in life so that the emergence of the peculiar feels like it was lurking there all along.

After propelled into motion by the horrific death of his grandfather, Jacob goes to Whales in an effort to understand his deeply rooted emotional and psychological connection with his grandfather. The inciting incident is well crafted and the trip to Whales feels like a natural choice in trying to introduce Jacob to his grandfather's origins. Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, was sent to an orphanage on the Welsh island from Poland during World War II.

"The Knick": Uncomfortably Unique

Photo:  Mary Cybulski/HBO/Rolling Stone

A free trial of Cinemax allowed me the unexpected pleasure of watching the premiere of the Steven Soderbergh period piece and medical drama, The Knick. The show takes place in New York City circa 1900. The choice of time period creates a raw and moody atmosphere in which the examination of the foundation of the health system provides viewers with not only a tense viewing experience but also an insight into how our current medical complex came to be.

The pilot is perhaps a bit overloaded with turn of the 20th century references which feels a bit like an Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis mash-up at moments. However, all of the right production elements come into play to make this pilot episode, Method and Madness, a captivating hour of television. 

Book Review: "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

I haven't read a mystery/thriller novel in ten years. Why? Well, even before I got wrapped up in the demands of my Literature degree I had gone off mystery stories for one main reason: predictability. I found the plots were no longer able to sustain my interest because the structure felt formulaic. I openly admit that I was probably reading only a fragment of good mystery writing available, but that was my experience.

So when I heard about Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, I had my reservations. However, like so many of my recent book choices - I saw that the movie was coming out and I wanted to hop on that pop culture wave. Let me just say - I'm really glad I did. I can honestly say that I haven't felt shamelessly hooked to a book the way I was to Gone Girl in a long time. I'm talking sneak-reading while I'm supposed to be getting ready to go out with friends; wondering what these characters were up to while I was at work. The entire journey felt justified...until the last couple of pages.

Book Review: "The Leftovers" by Tom Perrotta

I wanted to read this book before the HBO series based on Tom Perrotta’s dystopian novel premiered, and I finished a mere two hours shy of the deadline. (If you’re watching the show, you can check out my reviews of each episode here: www.hobotrashcan.com.) Okay, back to the book. I was intrigued by this idea of 2% of the world’s population vanishing with no explanation. What happens to those who are left behind? What happens to societal structure and the role of religion beneath the weight of the unknown?

The story picks up three years after the "Sudden Departure" of 2% of the world's population. In the story we get to travel into different character perspectives to gain a wider scope of the impact of the Sudden Departure. Most of the characters we follow are from the Garvey family. Kevin Garvey is the Mayor of Mapleton, which serves as a microcosm for what is occurring on a world wide scale. Kevin is struggling with raising his teenage daughter Jill in the aftermath of all that has happened. Jill is trying to make sense of a world with an uncertain future, as is much of the youth in the story. All of the previous societal expectations seem absurd when you don’t know if tomorrow is guaranteed. Jill’s perspective provides a glimpse into her broken world filled with hedonism and a slow growing discovery that not even extreme explorations of pain and pleasure can fill the void.