Silver Star

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As usual Walls slams another one out of the park. With her quirky sense of humour and witty characters this book is a must read (like her other two). The mum, Charlotte comes off as a bizarre, free spirit that just decides she is going to stop being a mother and go to San Diego, leaving Bean and her sister Liz to fend for themselves and there's no notice of when she is coming back. Bean and Liz decide to make the trek from California to Virginia via bus and the stories begin to unfold. When arriving in Virginia, they find their Uncle Tinsley and he provides them with shelter and positive living experiences. Like the other books that Walls has written the families are more than their fair share of dysfunctional. The best part of this book was the significance of the Silver Star. It was heart felt and touching. Everyone needs to have one token they hold dear to themselves and the significance is worth millions more then the item itself.

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Confessions of a Sociopath

Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight by M.E. Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book incredibly interesting and couldn't put it down. The best thing about this book was that it was written by someone that is a high-functioning sociopath and she is not a criminal. Millions of times I have seen books written about or by people that are considered sociopaths but are criminals. This was the first I had seen the broke the mold, so being interested in learning about such topics, I dove right into this book. I liked how the author directed you to visit her website to see how sociopaths and others interact. The website is SociopathWorld.com. I was able to browse around a bit and get a feel for what the author was talking about how people completely condemn and judge those that are sociopaths. The conclusion I came to from reading this book was: all people have some little quality or varying degrees of traits that would/could be related to sociopaths. So before people start judging they need to learn all the facts and take into account people's lifestyles and upbringing. There are so many factors related to the subject that to just lay a blanket statement over everything is really under-estimating people and their abilities. This book got me to think about and view things differently as well as slightly get a look as to how a person, that is considered a sociopath, deals with various tasks and things in everyday life. A very eye opening experience reading this book, but it was all worth it :)

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Presumed Guilty

Presumed Guilty by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I was purchasing this book, I saw the cover and that it was by Gerritsen and I was like Yes! A gritty novel that I haven't read by Gerritsen. (I have read all her other novels and was kind of surprised that I had missed this one, but it was only released in the last little while.) As I am getting ready to read the book there is a note to the reader from Gerritsen. The note basically says that Harlequin Mira is releasing her previous works before she was a crime/thriller writer and she hopes that the reader enjoys her works. The only reason this book is getting two stars is because I was unable to guess who the killer was. There were so many possibilities and just when you think it was that particular character a fact was released that proved their innocence. The crime scene that started the book wasn't all that gritty or gorey. There was no real incidents of very in depth detail about a murder or crime scene after the one incident that was the books' main focus. I guess the problem with this book was that I am so used to reading Gerritsen's hardcore, nasty, suspenseful, gorey scenes that this book had no chance of measuring up. I realize that this book and a few other books that are yet to be released, were her starting point before she got to the crime/thriller genre. The book being published by Harlequin, I was kind of surprised. There wasn't any really continuous steamy drama between the main characters, or anything that would really get someone's hormones excited. (Now maybe that is me being prejudice assuming that all Harlequin books are meant to be hot and steamy.) The one thing I did really enjoy and thought Gerritsen did an amazing job capturing was the scenery of Maine and the main town of Bass Harbour where the story took place.

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