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Great Audio:
A great, knowing pal (thanks, 7!) gave me a copy of this treatise. I'd really wanted to read it, but finally went with the audio so I could get to it sooner. A fun, wild ride for anyone who is into conspiracy theories, the Manson murders, Hollywood of the Sixties, and just plain old-fashioned nutbaggery. Tom O'Neill dedicated so much of his life to this story you'll begin to wonder about his sanity. Then your own. Then everyone's. Much intense fun.
Superb Noiry Darkness:
Ashamedly, I've waited way too long to write about this fantastic gritty noir. Shawn Cosby is a hell of a writer. His protagonist, Nathan Waymaker (a man who "knows how to handle the bodies"), is a former Marine and Sheriff's deputy currently working in his cousin's funeral home. When a local minister is found dead, his followers feel the police aren't taking the case seriously. Since Nathan has a rep as someone willing to help out when times are tough, they ask him to take a look at the case. Great humor, snappy dialogue, characters to root for. Read this before the next installment, Blacktop Wasteland, comes out on July 14.
Jake Hinkson writes great small town grit, and Dry County is no exception. A mix of politics, religion and a man willing to do anything to retain his power, it's a stark look at how people just keep digging even when they're in a hole. Richard Weatherford is a preacher in small town Arkansas who has grown his following and perfected the optics of his life with his wife and five kids. Things go south when a blackmail scheme threatens to take down everything Richard has built, and he'll go to great measure to put an end to it. Great stuff.
Interesting, but Disconnect:
I really wanted to love this one by Aussie Shaun Prescott, and for the most part I did. In a super cool premise, Prescott's unnamed protagonist shows up in a town in the rural Outback. He's writing a book about Australian towns that are disappearing. Then the town he's in begins to literally disappear as large holes to nowhere show up. People who get near them are sucked in never to be seen again. They keep getting bigger. It's about connectivity and belonging and ostracism and many other interesting concepts. Unfortunately, the conclusion also seemed to disappear. I wasn't entirely sure where Prescott ended up with this one. Maybe that was the point. Maybe I missed the point. There's great writing here, I was often transfixed, but ultimately the conclusion lost me.
Great, but Dry:
I love me a good nature book. Subtitled How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives, the premise of this one grabbed me at the start. Within, Louv explores our powerful bonds with nature and animals and how they can "transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth." Unfortunately, the writing felt more like a textbook or treatise than a narrative. I realize it's non-fiction, but putting a story to a non-fiction premise makes it more accessible to those who aren't necessarily part of the sciences. A good and interesting work, but perhaps not for everyone.
DNF
I have to take a good part of the hit on this one. I was really looking forward to this memoir by Emily Chappell, relaying the epic story of her efforts to win the Transcontinental bike race, a 4,000km trek across Europe, unassisted. During her first attempt, she failed, regaining consciousness lying on her back in a field. I love stories of people fighting against the elements and the limits of the human mind and body. For some reason, the start of this one (with Chappell coming to in the field) was really confusing and I had an immediate disconnect. Again, I think this was me and I picked this up at the wrong time, but the entry was not a smooth one. I'll give it another go one of these days.
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