PK the Bookeemonster: Stare down

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Stare down

Thursday

Oh I'm so mad. I DNF'd the book from yesterday by Popp. It seemed to be a really unique story. I had some issues with the moral grey-ness of killing people who "deserve it" in the main character's estimation much like Dexter. It felt icky but I was doing okay with it.

But the final straw was the thread of anti-men prejudice throughout the whole thing that kept getting worse. I get that people and characters can have opinions dissimilar to mine but in a book that's for entertainment .... I don't want that in my brain.

And I'm angry because I wanted to like it and have a good reading experience. My reading time is scarce and therefore valuable and I just wasted some of it on a bad book.

So somewhat by default, I'm reading ESPRESSO by M.L. Hamilton. 3rd of 8 in Zion Sawyer cozy mystery series.

Tate left the LAPD after his partner Jason died. He didn’t want to discuss the traumatic experience with anyone, but when a former brother in blue arrives in Sequoia, Tate is forced to confront his demons or start running again. Zion has made a home in Sequoia, but her conflict between her past with David and her future with Tate must be reconciled. However, when her best friend Rebekah winds up on her doorstep, Zion finds her attention divided between her life and the train-wreck that has become Rebekah’s. With the first annual Halloween festival fast approaching, the townspeople in Sequoia are confronted with the possibility that violence might once again visit their town, and both Tate and Zion are caught right in the middle of it.

Published 2017; 305 pages.

I also started WALKING WITH SAM: A Father, A Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy. Nonfiction

When Andrew McCarthy's eldest son began to take his first steps into adulthood, McCarthy found himself wishing time would slow down. Looking to create a more meaningful connection with Sam before he fled the nest, as well as recreate his own life-altering journey decades before, McCarthy decided the two of them should set out on a trek like few 500 miles across Spain's Camino de Santiago. Over the course of the journey, the pair traversed an unforgiving landscape, having more honest conversations in five weeks than they'd had in the preceding two decades. Discussions of divorce, the trauma of school, McCarthy's difficult relationship with his own father, fame, and Flaming Hot Cheetos threatened to either derail their relationship or cement it. Walking With Sam captures this intimate, candid and hopeful expedition as the father son duo travel across the country and towards one another.

Published 2023; 256 pages. I've read many Camino books; I enjoy them immensely. I'm not a fan of actor Andrew McCarthy but I'm giving his book a shot because of the topic.

And I'm back to the Ashley Gardner book. I have both audio and ebook. I'm also conflicted with this book. I want to like this series but the protagonist kinda rubs me the wrong way and the performer of the audio is a little abrasive. But I'm pushing through with it.