What I've Read Lately-A Couple of Good Ones and Some I Abandoned

Framed! A T.O.A.S.T Mystery by James Ponti

Florian Bates is an average 12 year-old besides the fact that he works for the FBI. He's known as Little Sherlock. It's an adventure of him and his friend Margaret figuring out clues through TOAST (Theory of All Small Things) to help solve a crime. 

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This was just pure fun! I unashamedly love children's books. And I like to think that I read the latest and greatest in new children's fiction but no, I just find some good ones off the bat. My favorite thing to do at the library is going to the new shelves in juvenile section and pick a book from there. That's what I did with All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook. And that's what happened with this book. I practically read it in one sitting. This actually happens to be the first book from the library that Austin has read before me. And he was pretty happy about it (see pic below.) We planned to go to the temple last Saturday and he insisted I drive there and back (1.5 hours each way) so he could read the book. I laughed out loud at parts and there was a turn to the story that I did not see coming so that added to the element of fun.

Rising Threat by Roger Smith

When you're related to the author, you just got to read it. This is about Dane Alexander trying to piece together a puzzle of information after his dad died on a business trip 10 years ago. And he starts to fit together pieces of why his dad died and how the information he knows can threaten the United States.

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It was fun reading this book and sometimes forgetting your uncle wrote this. I was just enjoying the story. This is definitely a fast-paced, plot driven novel. There was no real development of characters just race after race of trying to catch Dane before he can reveal all the stuff that he knows. Because there was so much going on, there was a lot of switching of scenes but nothing to really separate the scenes (like no ****) so sometimes it was hard to switch my mind to another location all of a sudden. The ending was a little abrupt but it worked. I'm just impressed with all that Uncle Roger knows. And I loved that he incorporated Gresham and slyly used part of my home address. :)

Books I Abandoned

I can't believe I've abandoned 3 books so far this month! No wonder this month is a little slow in reading progress. I'm usually one that has to finish everything but realizing that I've got so many other books that I'm interested in, if it's not working now, I'll ditch it and maybe come back to it. Maybe. 

Before We Visit the Goddess

This book was only about 200 pages long and I got to about page 130 before the content changed and I was really uncomfortable. I just couldn't finish it. Which is sad because the writing was really beautiful at times. This was a really sad story though about 3 generations of mothers and daughters who face hard hard times. Makes me realize the effect our choices have on next generations.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore

Okay this one the idea was fun and I gave it about 130 pages as well but then I just kind of lost interest, at the part where I believe the plot picks up too, which is saying something. Maybe I'm just the Google tech nerdy type that loved all their references or ideas. Maybe some other time but not right now.

Jane Steele

Sadly, this was one for my Fall Reading seasonal list but I read about 170 pages and it bored me to tears. It's supposed to be a liking to Jane Eyre and I didn't even get to Mr. Rochester yet. It was just hard to muddle through. I hear this one is going to be made into a movie. Great. It's probably going to have an epic trailer and now I'll HAVE to finish it. To make up for my seasonal reading, I'm going to start A Monster Calls which is also being made into a movie this year so I got to read it (see my pattern here?)

*Excited for the second half of September reading. I'm listening to The Night Circus right now. Loving it so far.