When I first read the description of this book, it sounded like an interesting ghost story. I like ghost stories - especially if they spook me out. :-)
I just read Loss: A Paranormal Thriller by Glen Krisch. I was hoping to have more to this book than there was, but oh well... can't have it all. I think the ending could have been explained a little better, but I'll get to that a bit later.
So, this supposed "ghost story" story start off with Angelie and her husband getting into a car accident after a family party. Of course it's evening, and of course it's snowing - if the story would have taken place in an area that doesn't snow, I would have expected rain instead. :-)
Angelie's husband, Paul, dies in the accident and "Ang" is left to deal with his loss on her own. Even though Paul had three other brothers, they all had their own families and I guess since their mother didn't like her, they didn't really bother keeping an eye out for her.
Which takes me off on my first (of possibly many) tangents. Now, I know that it's having this messed up family that makes the story work, but how sad is that. Angie's brother in law and his girlfriend take her home from the hospital after suffering so many injuries of her own and leave her alone that night! What the heck were they thinking! She was in the hospital for three weeks and they think that she could just start taking care of herself that easily? It was their brother that died, so out of respect for him I would have thought that they would have felt more responsible for making sure his widow was okay.
Instead, Ang decided to start numbing herself with vicodin and alcohol and spent months in a stupor as she tried to get over the death of her husband. Instead of taking care of her - who wouldn't notice that she was harming herself! - they started to visit less and less often. The only thing that kept Ang from totally killing herself was this ghost that she kept imagining... at least she thought she was imagining it - and what comforted her was that this ghostly figment of her imagination looked just like her Paul.
I don't know if it was the way it was written or something else that was going through my mind at the time, but the first third of the book kind of spooked me out! I don't say that often! I like watching spooky movies, not bloody hack-slash type of movies, but spooky. Of course, the last time I got spooked by one of these movies was... oh what was it? Blair Witch I think? That was a while ago.
As short as this book was, I really did enjoy it. Yeah, it was a bit sad and I know that I mentioned before that I'm tired of sad books, but this one was different. It wasn't about a stupid teenager that had an unhealthy obsession with her boyfriend, or a fat chick that couldn't see the beautiful person that she was... Ang had lost her husband and I'm sure that there are many windows that spend a few days/weeks/months in a depression. Of course, not everyone would take it as far as Angie did with alcohol and drugs, but I'm sure that it passes many of their minds. I can't and don't want to imagine myself in the same situation, but I'm sure that there are a few ladies out there that can relate.
I kind of wish that the ending would have gone on a bit more. Ang does get to see her husband's ghost at the end, but then it jumps to a year later and she's still talking to her husband. What??? Just as the story started becoming the ghost story that I thought it was going to be, the story ends! The writer could have extended this part of the story just a bit more. Not sure exactly how at this exact moment, but I'm sure I could come up with an idea or two. :-)
I see that this writer has a few books at Amazon and I'm really curious to read more - but I'm such a penny pincher that I wouldn't want to pay $2.99 for a short story length like this book was. I'll have to look into it because I did like his writing. :-)
So, what's next? Another sad story? I have no idea. I may pick up an actual book next, or just choose another random book from the Kindle. With Rent playing in the back ground, a crazy dog rubbing her back all over the carpet with her paws in the air and writing about what I like doing - reading - I guess it really doesn't matter much. Life is good and comfie. :-)
Happy Reading,
Pinka
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Twenty Weeks
If the writer of this book wasn't trying to make a political statement, I'm sure that someone is going to use this book and try to shove it down someones throat to try to change their mind. I really don't want to go into my own personal opinions about the whole abortion thing yet, but I can tell you this - this book is so unrealistic with the happily-ever-after ending that any kid who thinks that this may happen to her will be really disappointed.
I just read Twenty Weeks by Melisa M. Hamling. I liked the writing style and how she told her story, but her story is just so fairy tail like that it just about ruined the book for me. Okay, so I'm in a bad mood now. Not only because this book was depressing and there was so much crying in it that I hoped that something different would happen to make up for it all. But instead the writer went with the traditional, super predictive happy ending that I would have expected from an After School Special that used to be aired so many years ago.
The book started out pretty good. Our main character, Maya, and her boyfriend, Alex, go to a party and 'accidentially' try some ecstasy. Though they were trying to wait as long as possible before taking their relationship to include sexual activity (come one, they were only 16), they end up having unprotected sex that night. The ecstasy ended up with something else in it that made them really sick and Maya almost ended up dying. Of course, with a title like Twenty Weeks (which is a too obvious and probably really bad title for this book), Maya ends up pregnant.
Now, what I don't understand is why Maya, who seemed like she had a good relationship with her parents and sister... heck, even her relationship with her boyfriend seemed ideal - gets really stupid and starts hiding stuff from them - like the fact that she's pregnant!!! I don't know, I didn't have that great of a relationship with my parents - heck, they were borderline jerks at one point, but I know that when my sister had an unplanned pregnancy, they would have done everything possible to help her. Heck, even after the hell she put them through after my niece was born, they still did everything they could to help her. My dad accepted an early retirement in order to be his first grand daughter's main caretaker while my sister went to work and school.
So, why Maya all of the sudden turned stupid, I don't know. But then, I won't try to explain teenage behavior because we all know from experience that we all went through bouts of stupidity during those tender years. But Maya goes to a clinic to look into getting an abortion. She ends up having a really bad and traumatic experience right before she goes in for the procedure and she ends up keeping the baby after all. I can understand why she would think she was not worthy of her baby because of what she almost did, but you'd think that with all of the love and support she had around her that she'd get it in her thick skull that the whole point of the matter was that she didn't!
Two books in a row with stupid characters. What was I thinking when I downloaded these? Oh well, books read and now I'm bitter. I'm probably giving this book an undeserving bashing just because I'm in a bad mood now. I was expecting just something a little more different for the ending. But it just felt so rushed and short... and shallow. She may as well just wrote "and the lived happily ever after" instead and it would have had the same effect. Instead of drawing out the whole abortion thing (I know she has this whole political agenda hidden in there - yes, I'm being ornery now, so I'll shut up about this subject now), the writer should have had Maya have her baby a little earlier and concentrated on some kind of conflict after the baby was born to show how hard it is to keep a relationship alive with a baby around. Heck, this is universal no matter how old you are. Hubby and I didn't have our son until we were 33 years old and have had the usual fights on who got more sleep during those first few years.
I wish the writer would have gone into the characters with a little more depth. I feel like I kind of got to know Maya, but wanted to know stuff like what made her so smart in school? How smart was she in school? What did she want to be when she grew up? How did she really feel about having a baby? The story went into how Maya wanted to protect her boyfriend so much but didn't really get into how Maya felt about herself. Did she want the baby or not? She just kept going on and on about how Alex wouldn't want the baby. If the writer did mention it, it certainly was washed out by Maya's worry over how Alex would feel, or how her parents would react.
I think the talent for writing was there, but the story was just too naive and idealistic. Too much of a fairy tail and the subject matter was too mature to present it as a fairy tail. I just looked up on Amazon and it looks like this is the writer's only book. It also looks like it may be self published. If this is true, then I actually admire what she's done with this. Sure, the story can use a lot of help, but she still did a pretty good job for being her first book. I hope that someone with the right connections can help with her next book and get it properly edited. I'm sure that if she continues to stay in the controversial subject matter that she may be able to make a difference to someone out there... just not with this book.
Happy reading,
Pinka
I just read Twenty Weeks by Melisa M. Hamling. I liked the writing style and how she told her story, but her story is just so fairy tail like that it just about ruined the book for me. Okay, so I'm in a bad mood now. Not only because this book was depressing and there was so much crying in it that I hoped that something different would happen to make up for it all. But instead the writer went with the traditional, super predictive happy ending that I would have expected from an After School Special that used to be aired so many years ago.
The book started out pretty good. Our main character, Maya, and her boyfriend, Alex, go to a party and 'accidentially' try some ecstasy. Though they were trying to wait as long as possible before taking their relationship to include sexual activity (come one, they were only 16), they end up having unprotected sex that night. The ecstasy ended up with something else in it that made them really sick and Maya almost ended up dying. Of course, with a title like Twenty Weeks (which is a too obvious and probably really bad title for this book), Maya ends up pregnant.
Now, what I don't understand is why Maya, who seemed like she had a good relationship with her parents and sister... heck, even her relationship with her boyfriend seemed ideal - gets really stupid and starts hiding stuff from them - like the fact that she's pregnant!!! I don't know, I didn't have that great of a relationship with my parents - heck, they were borderline jerks at one point, but I know that when my sister had an unplanned pregnancy, they would have done everything possible to help her. Heck, even after the hell she put them through after my niece was born, they still did everything they could to help her. My dad accepted an early retirement in order to be his first grand daughter's main caretaker while my sister went to work and school.
So, why Maya all of the sudden turned stupid, I don't know. But then, I won't try to explain teenage behavior because we all know from experience that we all went through bouts of stupidity during those tender years. But Maya goes to a clinic to look into getting an abortion. She ends up having a really bad and traumatic experience right before she goes in for the procedure and she ends up keeping the baby after all. I can understand why she would think she was not worthy of her baby because of what she almost did, but you'd think that with all of the love and support she had around her that she'd get it in her thick skull that the whole point of the matter was that she didn't!
Two books in a row with stupid characters. What was I thinking when I downloaded these? Oh well, books read and now I'm bitter. I'm probably giving this book an undeserving bashing just because I'm in a bad mood now. I was expecting just something a little more different for the ending. But it just felt so rushed and short... and shallow. She may as well just wrote "and the lived happily ever after" instead and it would have had the same effect. Instead of drawing out the whole abortion thing (I know she has this whole political agenda hidden in there - yes, I'm being ornery now, so I'll shut up about this subject now), the writer should have had Maya have her baby a little earlier and concentrated on some kind of conflict after the baby was born to show how hard it is to keep a relationship alive with a baby around. Heck, this is universal no matter how old you are. Hubby and I didn't have our son until we were 33 years old and have had the usual fights on who got more sleep during those first few years.
I wish the writer would have gone into the characters with a little more depth. I feel like I kind of got to know Maya, but wanted to know stuff like what made her so smart in school? How smart was she in school? What did she want to be when she grew up? How did she really feel about having a baby? The story went into how Maya wanted to protect her boyfriend so much but didn't really get into how Maya felt about herself. Did she want the baby or not? She just kept going on and on about how Alex wouldn't want the baby. If the writer did mention it, it certainly was washed out by Maya's worry over how Alex would feel, or how her parents would react.
I think the talent for writing was there, but the story was just too naive and idealistic. Too much of a fairy tail and the subject matter was too mature to present it as a fairy tail. I just looked up on Amazon and it looks like this is the writer's only book. It also looks like it may be self published. If this is true, then I actually admire what she's done with this. Sure, the story can use a lot of help, but she still did a pretty good job for being her first book. I hope that someone with the right connections can help with her next book and get it properly edited. I'm sure that if she continues to stay in the controversial subject matter that she may be able to make a difference to someone out there... just not with this book.
Happy reading,
Pinka
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The Lighter Side of Large
Even though this was supposed to be a funny or humorous book, I didn't really find it as such. I don't know, may I'm just being sensitive because I'm a "large" woman but have never experienced what the main character of this book did.
I just finished reading "The Lighter Side of Large" by Becky Siame. I don't know if New Zealand or the area of that country that our main character, Bella, is from, but oh boy - she lives around some pretty nasty people!
Now, I have to admit that I have not been heavy my entire life. Actually, as of 9 years ago, I was quite the opposite. I was wearing a size 3 when I became pregnant with my son. It wasn't until after my son was born and had all of these health problems that my body changed and became swollen and heavy. Of course, eating all of those cookies and candy certainly doesn't help. :-) :-) And I like eating those cookies and candies!
So our story starts off with Bella being pretty much thrown out of her house by her husband who no longer loves her - all of this happening two weeks after the birth of their second child. The worst part about it is that Bella's husband, Mika, abandons her for her own sister.
Okay, yes, this is sad, but Bella builds a new life for her and her kids and even though her husband makes a bunch of money having his own law firm, Bella refuses to take any kind of financial support from him. I admire that kind of pride because it takes a lot of strength to turn down the kind of money that he was offering.
So, our dear Bella turns into a character of contradictions that really starts to get on my nerves. She obviously has a lot of pride, but she carries around the baggage that her husband left her when he did like all of the fat on her body. People treat her badly and make faces and rude comments because she's fat and she feel so bad about it - but doesn't really do anything to change the situation! She has these extraordinary supportive friends that try to get her out of this funk to change her life, but it take the news that her ex husband and sister are going to get married for her to finally step up to make a changes in her life. She sets goals - one being to lose weight and achieve that 'perfect' body.
During this quest, Bella meets a man in the grocery store that obvious finds her beautiful and very attractive. At this point I think she's still teetering around the 300 pound mark (the book shows kilos and I'm not going to do the math right now), but she has a good looking man that likes her and sees her for herself, not all of the extra pounds. Then, twice, Bella is convinced that he didn't like her anymore and didn't want to be with her because he didn't call or text her. Sure, I can understand that she would feel a bit hesitant to put all of her trust in this mew boyfriend, heck, she put her trust in her husband and look at what a scum bag he turned out to be! But the worst part is that she didn't even give her new beau, Jae, an chance. She never asked him or talked to him about her insecurities. How can you start off a relationship with these kind of secrets!
Well, the book goes on with Bella working out, eating right and losing lots of weight. During this time, her relationship with Jae continues to get more serious but she is still not satisfied with her body. She's convinced that she's not losing the weight fast enough and goes in for lap band surgery that almost kills her. Even though Bella's friends were against it, they still supported her and were there when she almost died. Jae was there every day while she was in the hospital and even after being in bed and sick for so many days, still called her beautiful.
Yet, this was still not enough for Bella. She starts a blog to talk about her quest of losing weight and because of the popularity that it gains, gets offered writing related jobs and a book offer. She talks about being treated badly when she was still really heavy and how large people get discriminated against even today. She fights for equal treatment for over weight people that we start to see a much stronger Bella, who after all of the positive and wonderful things going on in her life, is still not satisfied with her own body!!!
Well, it takes the whole book and almost losing her friends and Jae, but Bella finally gets it in her thick skull that she could never be totally satisfied until she started to accept herself as she was. She was no longer heavy - going from a size 22 or something like that, to a size 12 - so she as more 'socially acceptable' body, she had a wonderful boyfriend that loved her even with all of that lose skin and bit of extra weight, supportive friends and family that loved her. She finally saw how good her life was but she couldn't enjoy because she was still so obsessed with her own looks and weight.
I'm glad that at the end Bella finally saw the truth that she had to love herself to enjoy all of the good things in her life, but the writer certainly took her time getting there. I was getting tired of hearing Bella whine and complain about being fat and being treated badly and obsessing over a handful of bad experiences. She reminded me too much of Louie from Interview with a Vampire - whine whine whine, blah blah blah. Makes me want to roll my eyes. Oh wait, I can roll my eyes, there's no Fifty Shades of Grey jerks in my life! :-) :-) *rolls eyes with much enthusiasm* :-) :-)
So, as you can see, I kind of liked this story but then it got on my nerves at the same time. I liked where Bella ended up but didn't care for her drawn out quest to get there. I'm a heavy lady and have never been treated even close to what Bella experienced. If I have, i don't really remember - but I really don't care!!! I know I'm heavy, the fact that I don't really work out and enjoy eating keeps me fat. But I'm healthy, not counting the countless number of drug allergies, but I'm not on any medications that are so common for heavy people - like for high cholesterol, high blood pressure or high blood sugar.
I haven't had anyone leave me because I'm fat - as a matter of fact, hubby and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last month and he still sees me as beautiful and sexy. I know that for everyone one else on earth that I'm not, but that doesn't matter. My husband loves the way I look and that's all that matters. Sure, I can probably stand to lose a bit of weight and I probably should... when the weather turns a bit cooler. :-) Yeah, excuses excuses. :-) I'll get there, but I know that I'll stay happy until I do. :-) :-)
Happy reading,
Pinka
I just finished reading "The Lighter Side of Large" by Becky Siame. I don't know if New Zealand or the area of that country that our main character, Bella, is from, but oh boy - she lives around some pretty nasty people!
Now, I have to admit that I have not been heavy my entire life. Actually, as of 9 years ago, I was quite the opposite. I was wearing a size 3 when I became pregnant with my son. It wasn't until after my son was born and had all of these health problems that my body changed and became swollen and heavy. Of course, eating all of those cookies and candy certainly doesn't help. :-) :-) And I like eating those cookies and candies!
So our story starts off with Bella being pretty much thrown out of her house by her husband who no longer loves her - all of this happening two weeks after the birth of their second child. The worst part about it is that Bella's husband, Mika, abandons her for her own sister.
Okay, yes, this is sad, but Bella builds a new life for her and her kids and even though her husband makes a bunch of money having his own law firm, Bella refuses to take any kind of financial support from him. I admire that kind of pride because it takes a lot of strength to turn down the kind of money that he was offering.
So, our dear Bella turns into a character of contradictions that really starts to get on my nerves. She obviously has a lot of pride, but she carries around the baggage that her husband left her when he did like all of the fat on her body. People treat her badly and make faces and rude comments because she's fat and she feel so bad about it - but doesn't really do anything to change the situation! She has these extraordinary supportive friends that try to get her out of this funk to change her life, but it take the news that her ex husband and sister are going to get married for her to finally step up to make a changes in her life. She sets goals - one being to lose weight and achieve that 'perfect' body.
During this quest, Bella meets a man in the grocery store that obvious finds her beautiful and very attractive. At this point I think she's still teetering around the 300 pound mark (the book shows kilos and I'm not going to do the math right now), but she has a good looking man that likes her and sees her for herself, not all of the extra pounds. Then, twice, Bella is convinced that he didn't like her anymore and didn't want to be with her because he didn't call or text her. Sure, I can understand that she would feel a bit hesitant to put all of her trust in this mew boyfriend, heck, she put her trust in her husband and look at what a scum bag he turned out to be! But the worst part is that she didn't even give her new beau, Jae, an chance. She never asked him or talked to him about her insecurities. How can you start off a relationship with these kind of secrets!
Well, the book goes on with Bella working out, eating right and losing lots of weight. During this time, her relationship with Jae continues to get more serious but she is still not satisfied with her body. She's convinced that she's not losing the weight fast enough and goes in for lap band surgery that almost kills her. Even though Bella's friends were against it, they still supported her and were there when she almost died. Jae was there every day while she was in the hospital and even after being in bed and sick for so many days, still called her beautiful.
Yet, this was still not enough for Bella. She starts a blog to talk about her quest of losing weight and because of the popularity that it gains, gets offered writing related jobs and a book offer. She talks about being treated badly when she was still really heavy and how large people get discriminated against even today. She fights for equal treatment for over weight people that we start to see a much stronger Bella, who after all of the positive and wonderful things going on in her life, is still not satisfied with her own body!!!
Well, it takes the whole book and almost losing her friends and Jae, but Bella finally gets it in her thick skull that she could never be totally satisfied until she started to accept herself as she was. She was no longer heavy - going from a size 22 or something like that, to a size 12 - so she as more 'socially acceptable' body, she had a wonderful boyfriend that loved her even with all of that lose skin and bit of extra weight, supportive friends and family that loved her. She finally saw how good her life was but she couldn't enjoy because she was still so obsessed with her own looks and weight.
I'm glad that at the end Bella finally saw the truth that she had to love herself to enjoy all of the good things in her life, but the writer certainly took her time getting there. I was getting tired of hearing Bella whine and complain about being fat and being treated badly and obsessing over a handful of bad experiences. She reminded me too much of Louie from Interview with a Vampire - whine whine whine, blah blah blah. Makes me want to roll my eyes. Oh wait, I can roll my eyes, there's no Fifty Shades of Grey jerks in my life! :-) :-) *rolls eyes with much enthusiasm* :-) :-)
So, as you can see, I kind of liked this story but then it got on my nerves at the same time. I liked where Bella ended up but didn't care for her drawn out quest to get there. I'm a heavy lady and have never been treated even close to what Bella experienced. If I have, i don't really remember - but I really don't care!!! I know I'm heavy, the fact that I don't really work out and enjoy eating keeps me fat. But I'm healthy, not counting the countless number of drug allergies, but I'm not on any medications that are so common for heavy people - like for high cholesterol, high blood pressure or high blood sugar.
I haven't had anyone leave me because I'm fat - as a matter of fact, hubby and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last month and he still sees me as beautiful and sexy. I know that for everyone one else on earth that I'm not, but that doesn't matter. My husband loves the way I look and that's all that matters. Sure, I can probably stand to lose a bit of weight and I probably should... when the weather turns a bit cooler. :-) Yeah, excuses excuses. :-) I'll get there, but I know that I'll stay happy until I do. :-) :-)
Happy reading,
Pinka
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