Graphic

Radium Girls:  The Dark Story of America's Shining Women was graphic and hard to read in many places.  These women, how they suffered.  But their deaths and pain were not in vain.  What a story.  So very tragic.  And greed.  The love of money truly is the root of all evil.  You can read more about them here.

Not the guy from Rush

J. Paul Getty is not, as far as I know, related to Geddy Lee from Rush.  Still, Painfully Rich:  the Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty was good!  I have to admit that I thought Geddy was spelled Getty, so that could be why I was confused.  The book is now called All the Money in the World, which is the name of the movie that just came out.  I saw it on Christmas Day with my mom.  I had listened to most of the book prior to seeing the movie so it was a different experience for me.  I enjoyed the movie a lot, but I did fall asleep.  I was tired!  I think reading the book before the movie is a good idea though, because you get a bigger picture.  Also, the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III is just a chapter in the book.  But it does have a lot of detail. It was sad to read about this family.  It was hard to envy them, even though they are super rich.  But it was hard to feel sorry for them, too.  But it was not like I was passing judgement, really.  It was just more or less, well, some people do have horrible lives here on earth.  They do.  But I think that money can make the horrible a little less horrible sometimes.  But it doesn't make it not horrible.  It can be horrible either way. 

An Accident

The Boat Rocker was a book I read by total accident.  I didn't even realize it was an accident until I was 1/2 way through it, but I was hooked.  I saw a book with a similar cover and thought that I wanted to listen to it, then I saw this one available on audio and it completely hooked me.  Not knowing much about China, this makes me want to know more.  And I loved the main character, Feng.  It was just perfect.  Loved it.  Highly recommended.

Very Creepy...I only wish I had waited until October!

The Night Gardener took me a while to read because I really loved reading it.
First of all, what a great cover!
Second, what an original story!
Third, what a wonderful way with words Jonathan Auxier has!
I read this book while I was reading The Madman of Piney Woods and it was kinda cool that both have ties to the Irish Potato Famine.  Again, I am ashamed of my lack of historical knowledge.  I knew about the Potato Famine but I didn't realize how much the British contributed to the horrors that the Irish faced.
This book is GREAT scary story and Molly and Kip are really, really cool characters.  There is a lot of good vs. evil here and a lot to think about regarding greed.  Good. Good. Good!  I hope there will be an audio, because this would be cool to listen to with the right narrator.  Awesome!

The World Lost

an amazing voice on July 1 of this year.  Walter Dean Myers went Home.  On a Clear Day comes out in September and so it will be the first Myers book published after his passing.  That sounds odd, I mean, it has to be the last one as well, right? But there is rumor that there are more Myers books out there, and that they will be published posthumously also.  I can't find where I read that, but I swear I did!
Myers once said, "I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head."
On a Clear Day was a tough book for me.  I just couldn't really get into it.  I mean, it was well written and it was full of good stuff and thought-provoking stuff.  It is set in the near future, but man, I think that a lot of the bad guys in this book, the multi-national corporations who really run the world and run it with their bottom line as the only thing of any importance, I think that they are more real than we would dare to believe.  Yes, yes, yes, I am a big conspiracy theorist.  But I do think that money makes folks do evil things. And I do think that greed corrupts and so I found this book not to hard to believe.
I didn't really like any of the characters though, but I think that if this was going to be a series, I would have read the next one.  It was just too intriguing not to.
Ah...but now WDM is gone...so I don't think that will be happening.  But it is something I will want to ask him about for sure.