Choose 5 books.
Randomly set up your books in order.
Flip to a random page in the book and write the first two names you see.
Then, put the names in the categories listed below in the order you saw them (don’t peek!! )
Cry about how screwed you are!
Tag some more people to join in the fun!

My Books

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
The Whistler, John Grisham
Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The first person to die …

Cora from The Underground Railroad. No, crap, that’s a huge bummer! She’s the central character in her book, and she’s incredibly brave and smart!

—

The first person you trip up to escape the zombies …

Michael from The Underground Railroad. I’m sure it was an accident! Now I feel bad.

—

The person that trips you to get away from the zombies …

Lacy from The Whistler. This actually makes sense. She’s the central character in her book, and I can totally see her doing this! As an investigator with the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC), she’s super smart, and willing to do anything to save herself.

—

The team idiot …

Michael from The Whistler. He’s the boss in his book, which naturally comes with some idiotic characteristics.

—

The brains of the group …

Atticus from Go Set A Watchman. This – This I agree with! He’s a lawyer, and a pretty good one. I like this!

—

The team medic …

Calpurnia from Go Set A Watchman. Another one I’m honestly okay with. She’s a strong woman and helped take care of Atticus’s children after their mother died. So, I know she dealt with many an injury while helping raise Jem and Scout. My confidence is building!

—

The weapons expert …

Harry from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. YES! This is awesome. He is a wizard, and, come on, he helped form and train Dumbledore’s Army. I’m very happy about this. He can use his wand to do almost anything.

—

The team brawler …

Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Another excellent choice. The man is a beast, and very intimidating! I know that he wouldn’t want to hurt anyone intentionally, but I know that he won’t back down, either.

—

The first to turn into a zombie …

Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. I’m not really sad about this. Gatsby’s story ends up very sad in his book, so we’d might as well get it over with early on.

—

The team leader …

Daisy from The Great Gatsby. This is possibly the worst. Ever. Daisy is so self-absorbed and flirty. I would glad pick ANYONE ELSE. If her character existed in modern times, she’d be making duck faces and taking selfies most of the time, and always worried about her makeup. She’d be totally distracted! Not awesome if you’re tasked to be team leader. Sigh.

Well, I don’t have a totally terrible team. I think we’d make out okay, although I’m pretty sure Daisy would become a zombie right after Gatsby, and the rest of us would have to fend for ourselves. Regardless, I think we’d end up surviving.

This was really fun! I liked this challenge!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.25.17

by Laura Beth

Book Review #35: “The Man in the High Castle”

Image Credit: Catspaw Dynamics

Finally! This is one book that I was hoping to finish a LONG time ago. I almost finished it in the fall, but the two-week window from the library closed so quickly. It was bugging me, for months. I hate not finishing books, unless it was so insufferable that I couldn’t stand to finish it.

This book was not one of those insufferable ones. I got it from the library two Saturdays ago, and I just made the deadline. Hooray!

—

It was an intriguing book. In a sentence: Imagine if the Allies lost World War II.

Think about that. If Germany, Japan, and Russia had won, what in the world would happen?

Philip K. Dick is (was) a very interesting writer. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I’m not a huge fan of science fiction, but alternate reality has recently captured my attention. I’ve even considered using it in some of my own writing.

Now that I’ve finished the book, I’m excited to see what Amazon has done with their TV series of the same name.

Trying not to give away a lot (The book is only a little over 200 pages), it’s 1962 and the U.S. has been divided into the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese Pacific States. Mr. Dick creates multiple characters as they try to live their lives under seemingly oppressive rule and challenging times.

Mr. Dick also creates “a novel within a novel.” This is something that I don’t see very often, but I usually enjoy. The novel within the book shows details of what would happen if the Allies HAD won the war, though it’s different that what actual history has shown. Regardless, it was fascinating. I appreciated how the author carefully wove it into the plot.

In writing this post, I started looking at other books that employ alternate reality or history. One that made me raise my eyebrows was Bring The Jubilee (1953) by Ward Moore, about an alternative Civil War. You can bet I’m adding this one to my TBR.

—

This was not a hard read, at all, despite my previous reservations / hesitancy about science fiction. It flows easily, and I enjoyed learning about the different characters. Through his words, it was frighteningly easy to imagine what life could like if the Allies had lost and Germany and Japan swiftly took over everything. The characters attempt to make the most of what they have and what they are living with, but I imagine that life would be pretty miserable. I found myself reading at least one chapter per night, unless I was completely exhausted.

This book made me think about how wars affect everyone and everything. Unfortunately, several countries in our world are suffering under dictatorships and oppressive rule, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it!

Seeing what Mr. Dick created made me shiver. I’m curious to see what else he wrote in his short time on this Earth (He died in 1982 at age 53, from a stroke).

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.24.17

by Laura Beth

Book Review #34: “Music in My Heart: My Journey with Melody”

Image Credit: American Girl

If you haven’t already, I recommend checking out my previous Melody book reviews before reading this one:

This book was incredible! I’ve been so impressed with how historically accurate Melody’s books have been – I can clearly see the research and attention to detail. Every time, I feel like I’ve been transported to Detroit, Michigan in 1964.

I love how there are previews of the next book at the end of the previous ones – It makes me excited for the next chapter, in a way. This way, I discovered the modern girl in this story has a piano teacher named “Ms. Stricker,” which happens to be my maiden name! I realize this is fictionalized, but I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that! It’s so rare to see something like that!

To me, this book had more adventures than Maryellen’s journey, which I really liked. It was exciting to pick so many paths!

—

Melody is such a sweet character. It’s one of the things that immediately drew me to her stories when she was introduced in 2016. She’s passionate about her family, music, and the world around her. She wants to do what’s right!

Without giving away a lot of details, I loved everything about this book. Melody and the modern girl both love music, especially the piano and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Because of Melody, our modern girl discovers Motown, and experiences the Civil Rights Movement first-hand. We even meet a few key figures along the way!

This book snatched me up and didn’t let me go! I wanted to keep reading the first night, but I had to break it up over two of them. Getting up so early is a curse sometimes.

I’m keeping Melody’s books forever!

—

There’s at least one more Melody book out there – A mystery! I’m hoping my library has it! But, if I’m being honest, I’ll probably buy it, at some point.

I’m definitely adding more American Girl books to my TBR!

5 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.22.17

by Laura Beth

Awesome Authors #4: Truman Capote

Image Credit: AZ Quotes

I’m so far behind on these posts!

But, I’m back now. I also have several new ones in the works! I’m fully committed to publish a new one every month, going forward.

In Cold Blood (1966)

Image Credit: Google

This is the only book of Capote’s that I’ve actually read. However, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. This is one of the books that inspired my interest in true crime. It’s a completely true story, and it chilled me to the bone. Writing this post makes me want to re-read it.

I’m surprised that I slept well after finishing it!

—

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958)

Image Credit: Wikipedia

I completely forgot that Capote wrote this one, until I was researching for this post. I’ve only seen part of the iconic movie, but I know several people who love it. I definitely want to put this on my TBR!

—

Capote was a prolific writer – He discovered his calling when he was only eight years old! Wow!

He started with short stories. Throughout his short life (He died in 1984 at age 59), he was published in a variety of magazines, including Mademoiselle, Esquire, Vogue, The New Yorker, and others.

His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published in 1948.

In addition to several novels and multiple short stories, Capote also produced other literary and entertainment works – Local Color (collection of European travel essays), The Grass Harp (novel, then play), Beat The Devil (original screenplay), and House of Flowers (Broadway musical).

After his death, a number of Capote’s works have been published posthumously, starting in 1986. Random House has published Summer Crossing (2006) and The Early Stories of Truman Capote (2015), among others.

The more I read about Capote and his life, I want to read much more of his work. In addition to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I want to add Music for Chameleons (1980), and Summer Crossing to my TBR.

What about you? Have you read any of Truman Capote’s books?

Come back next month for another installment of Awesome Authors!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.13.17

by Laura Beth

Book Review #33: “The Devil’s Dozen: 12 Notorious Serial Killers Caught by Cutting-Edge Forensics”

Image Credit: Amazon

Much like the last book I reviewed, I found this book at a bargain price! I actually bought it late last year, but I didn’t pick it up and read it until the last two weeks.

I’ll admit it – I love almost anything that deals with true crime. I saw this title and knew that I wanted to read it.

Or, so I thought.

—

The one thing that took me aback, and bothered me throughout the book, was how academic it was. I felt like I was reading 12 short research papers. Trust me – That’s not exactly what I want in a book. I certainly appreciated Ramsland’s attention to details and her use of sources, but it was a very dry read.

—

Other than that issue, reading about these 12 cases was fascinating. There were some cases I had already read / heard about, but there were 5-6 that were completely new to me. I appreciated that Ramsland explored a wide range of cases, both in historical context, and throughout the globe. It was really cool to see how other countries use and have used forensics to accomplish the same goal – Stop these criminals forever. It was also interesting to learn about how these various forensic techniques were developed as early as the late 1800s, and how they were utilized then, and now.

The academic style was the biggest detractor for me, and it was tough to keep reading. But, I’m glad I finished it. If you’re interested in a heavily-research-based series of true crime stories, I recommend it. Ramsland is a talented author and researcher!

3 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.11.17

by Laura Beth

Book Review #32: “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison”

Image Credit: Wikipedia

At the end of April, during a long weekend with Al and his parents, I found this paperback while visiting the Virginia Avenue Mall in Clarksville, Virginia. There were so many books – It was a really cool indoor, two-story flea market. I was hunting for something else, but for $4.00, I couldn’t pass this up!

I haven’t watched the series on Netflix, but I’ve always been curious about it. I knew it was based on a true story / inspired by true events, but I didn’t realize that Piper Kerman had written a book about it!

This was another book that I finished quickly, but forgot to write the review. I’m trying really hard to break this habit! I think it only took me about two weeks to read.

—

It was crazy to read about how Piper’s unfortunate globe-trotting escapades caught up with her several YEARS later. She was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, and served her time in three different facilities.

Having only learned about prison from books and other media, reading a first-hand account from a woman who was not a typical inmate was eye-opening, and oddly fascinating. I say “not typical” because Piper was well-educated (She graduated from Smith College before getting involved with her criminal activities), and had an immense support system on the outside.

She did a fantastic job of painting the experience for the reader – I felt like I was right beside her the entire time. I really got to know Piper, as well as all the women around her. I went through many emotions – I laughed, I teared up, I wanted to scream. Mostly, I laughed. I personally think Piper tried to make the very best of her not-so-desirable situation, and I think she handled it really well.

I didn’t want to put the book down. I started to limit myself to only 1-2 chapters per night, because I wanted to read 5-6. It’s no wonder that this book has transformed into a successful series on Netflix.

Kerman did a great job with details, and made sure that the reader got as much of the full experience of her 15 months between Danbury, Connecticut; Oklahoma City; and Chicago as possible. It was also really interesting to go back in time, in a way, reading about headlines and news from 2003 through 2005.

She displayed a significant amount of courage by writing this book. She gives the reader an inside look into a tough place, and she does a really good job of showing honesty, sympathy, and advocacy.

—

I highly recommend this book. It’s definitely not the easiest read, but it really opened my eyes. I have a better understanding of what these women go through, and how those on the outside should be better about treating them. There’s still a huge stigma around incarceration, and these women deserve better.

5 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

04.14.17

by Laura Beth

Getting Personal #67: Second TBR Recap

Image Credit: Bookicious

Welcome back!

In case you’re interested, here are the links to my previous TBR posts:

This is what I’ve read since my last update in January:

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
The Whistler, John Grisham
Angels & Demons, Dan Brown

And, here’s my updated list!

Laura Beth’s To Be Read (TBR) List, as of April 2017:

The Language of Silence, Tiffany Truitt
Black Rabbit Hall, Eve Chase
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
New Boy, Julian Houston
The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling
11/22/63, Stephen King
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
Hollow City, Ransom Riggs
Library of Souls, Ransom Riggs
Tales of the Peculiar, Ransom Riggs
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling
Quidditch Through the Ages, J.K. Rowling
Music in My Heart: My Journey with Melody, Erin Falligant with Denise Lewis Patrick
Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, Emma Straub
Modern Lovers, Emma Straub
In the Unlikely Event, Judy Blume
You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
Another Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson
The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr
Loving Day, Mat Johnson
American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trial of Patty Hearst, Jeffrey Toobin
The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Toobin
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future, Gretchen Bakke
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance
A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, Jane Ziegelman and Andy Coe
Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
Bright, Precious Days, Jay McInerney
Underground Airlines, Ben Winters
A Good Month for Murder: The Inside Story of a Homicide Squad, Del Quentin Wilber
Teardrops of the Innocent: The White Diamond Story (True Colors – Volume 1), Allie Marie
Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, Lily Ledbetter
Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The War I Finally Won, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Read All About It: A Kit Classic Volume 1, Valerie Tripp
Turning Things Around: A Kit Classic Volume 2, Valerie Tripp
Full Speed Ahead: My Journey with Kit, Valerie Tripp
Autumn Street, Lois Lowry
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry
Messenger, Lois Lowry
Son, Lois Lowry
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Emma, Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The List, Patricia Forde
Hello Me, It’s You, Anonymous; edited by Hannah Todd
Use The Force: A Jedi’s Guide to the Law of Attraction, Joshua P. Warren
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
Inferno, Dan Brown

That’s all, for now!

I’ll publish my next TBR update / recap in July!

What have you read recently?

Happy reading!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

03.24.17

by Laura Beth

Book Review #30: “Angels & Demons”

Image Credit: Amazon

I originally thought The Da Vinci Code was the first book to feature Robert Langdon, but I was proven wrong!

This was a HUGE book. I wanted to finish it last week, but it was so dense that it took me until 11:00 p.m. last night to finally finish. It’s 616 pages total!

To be blunt, I have several praises, as well as several criticisms.

I was instantly drawn into Robert Langdon’s world. Brown hooked me within the first few sentences. I was along Langdon’s side from Harvard, to Switzerland, to Vatican City, to Rome. It was a bit of a whirlwind at first, and then you get plunged into the worlds of CERN, Vatican City, the Catholic Church, history, and symbolism.

Trying to figure out the puzzle that Brown laid out kept me interested. A scientist at CERN is brutally murdered, and he has connections to both the scientific and religious communities.

I liked Vittoria Vetra almost immediately. She’s feisty, gorgeous, and a great addition to Langdon. Langdon is the main character, but there were times that Vittoria was faster, and took control, and I liked it! She’s a smart cookie, and I knew Robert would be attracted to her.

The menagerie of twists and turns made me feel like I was on a high-speed ride through Europe! It was exhilarating. There were several days where I flew through multiple chapters and dozens of pages.

I applaud Brown’s dedication and commitment to historical accuracy, and being totally up front about not fictionalizing any locations, historical figures, or places (There’s a disclaimer in the very beginning). It felt even more real!

—

However, I had several issues with this book. There were three particular instances where I feel Brown is almost too graphic in his writing. As an aspiring writer of fiction, I know that, at certain times, it’s necessary to be graphic to illustrate and illuminate, But, Brown’s style was too much for this reader. I almost gave up every time. I almost didn’t want to find out what happened next. Some of it almost made me sick.

But, I pressed on.

Toward the end, as the intensity was reaching its peak in Vatican City, where decisions needed to be made quickly – Brown inserted this multiple-page speech by the Camerlengo (papal chamberlain) that just dragged on and on. I got the significance – The man was addressing the cardinals at a critical point in the conclave – but it could have been much shorter! Maybe dedicate a page or two, but not five or six! I felt so impatient during that section. I wanted to skip the entire speech and get just back to the action!

Finally, I hated the ending. It felt abrupt, it felt weird, it left me hanging a bit. It wasn’t a cliffhanger, but I hated how nonchalant it felt. I won’t give it away, but I felt a bit empty when I closed the book.

My first thought was, “That’s it? That’s how you end this ridiculously long book? Wow…”

After sleeping on it, I realized this morning why he ended it the way he did, but I still wasn’t happy about it!

—

If you’re looking for a thriller that involves conspiracy, mystery, secret societies, art history, exploring historic sections of Europe, and learning a lot about the Catholic Church – This book is for you.

Overall, I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone for this one. I’d heard of the movies, but haven’t seen them. The first few pages of The Da Vinci Code I read about a month ago made me curious about who Robert Langdon is and how he got himself into such a twisted web of history, religion, and murder. It’s an exciting book, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him, and what happens next.

Despite my issues with Angels & Demons, I’m still motivated to read the other books with protagonist Robert Langdon – The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013), and Origin (October 2017). Look for these reviews over the next few months.

3 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

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Tag Archives: Books

Book Review #35: “The Man in the High Castle”

Book Review #34: “Music in My Heart: My Journey with Melody”

Awesome Authors #4: Truman Capote

Book Review #33: “The Devil’s Dozen: 12 Notorious Serial Killers Caught by Cutting-Edge Forensics”