meg reads and reads

Title: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Author: J.K. Rowling I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone about 20 years ago, when I was in the eighth grade at Dobbins Middle School in Powder Springs, GA. I liked it, but for whatever reason, I was never motivated to continue reading the series. Here I am, a grown woman, finally continuing with Book 2. Even though I find J.K. Rowling problematic as a person, I'm not disappointed in reading this book. I've heard a lot of people say that this is their least favorite book in the series. I had seen the movie before, so I knew basically what was going to happen, but I really enjoyed reading this far more than I remember enjoying the first book. It was a really quick, easy read, and the shenanigans Harry and Ron got into were delightful. I also enjoyed reading about Ginny, who has a much larger presence in the book than in the movie. I'm not normally a YA reader, but this was fun. I also liked thinking about how m...

Title: The Valley of Amazement Author: Amy Tan I read several unfavorable reviews of The Valley of Amazement. However, I am pleased to say that I completely disagree with them. This book has love, loss, tragedy, humor, birth, death, pandemic, and much more. For the most part, it follows the life of Violet, a biracial young woman who, through an act of deceit, ends up becoming a courtesan.  The historical context is what I found particularly fascinating. This is largely because I read it during another global pandemic. The book vividly (and accurately) discusses the Spanish flu and its aftermath. The parallels to today's COVID-19 pandemic were striking. In short, I found the book to be engaging and interesting to read. The main characters--sometimes victims of others, sometimes victims of their own bad decisions--were likable and sympathetic.  I, without hesitation, give this book five out of five stars. ------------------------------------- QUOTES: "To save myself, I destroyed...

Title: Origin Author: Lew Gibb I got an ARC of this book, but I wasn't able to complete it before its publication date. I did enjoy reading it, though. The story is smart and well-paced, and Jessica is an interesting character. My friend Jessica passed away back in September, and I couldn't help but think of her the entire time I was reading this, which contributed to the slowness of the read. The writing style reminds me a bit of Barry Eisler, to whom the author does a shout out in the text of the book. Jessica is a bit like Livia Lone without the polish. I'm interested to see what happens in her story in later installments of this series. All of that said, the book itself needed a good edit. Since it was an ARC, I'll chalk it up to that. The errors were a little distracting and took away from my enjoyment a bit. Three out of five stars. --------------------- READING PROGRESS: The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan: 84% A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller: 41% The Regulators...

Title: Prodigal Son Author: Dean Koontz I can honestly say that I absolutely detested this book. It was boring, unoriginal, and I'm certain Mary Shelley would hate it. Koontz has basically cannibalized Frankenstein, and set it in modern times, which is something that's been done again and again. The writing was dull, and I found my mind drifted quite a bit, because it just could not hold my attention. This was my first Koontz, and I was not impressed. I don't think I'll be eager to read another. Two out of five stars. ----------------------------- QUOTES: "The concept of a weary severed hand, exhausted from relentless creeping, made no sense." "When Mary Shelley took a local legend based on truth and crafted fiction from it, she'd made Victor a tragic figure and killed him off. He understood her dramatic purpose for giving him a death scene, but he loathed her for portraying him as tragic and a failure. Her judgment of his work was arrogant. What else...

Title: Desperation Author: Stephen King On my journey through Stephen King, this is the first book that can solidly be placed in the horror genre since Needful Things. That said, only the first half of the book is truly scary. Collie Entragian is freaking terrifying, and the creepy animals also messed me up pretty bad. In the second half of the book, it starts to get pretty religious. I don't mind the Bible references, but they are objectively pretty heavy-handed and overtake the story. I breezed through the first half, but the second half was a chore to get through, not because of the religious aspect, but just because the plot suddenly slows way down, and I could not focus on it at all. My attention span hasn't been great lately (hence the gaps between posting reviews), and the slow pace definitely did not help. Anyway, the first half was awesome, and that's what saves this book. I give it three out of five stars. ---------------------------------------- QUOTES: "Dol...

Title: Too Much and Never Enough Author: Mary L. Trump This book isn't particularly good and lacks any real revelations about Donald Trump. We are told what we already knew--that Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father, was basically the worst. He was the source of the abhorrent behavior that we see on a near daily basis. The author tells us that the family would sit around the dinner table and, for instance, talk about how nasty and fat women were. The way she tells it, she seems to have empathy for Donald. We are all, after all, products of our parents, but she fails to place responsibility solely on the shoulders of Donald. We all have the responsibility to better ourselves; we can only blame our parents to a point. To me, it felt like this book was retaliation for being disinherited. The author tells us how, after her father's death, she and her brother were removed from her grandfather's will and denied her father's share of her grandfather's estate. That said, t...

Title: The Black Sisterhood Files Author: Kristina Naydonova The author of this book approached me to review it several weeks ago. I was behind on my reading, so I wasn't able to commit to it right away, but I have finally finished it. Let me start by saying the author of this book is thirteen. Keeping that in mind, I would say that, for such a young writer, this book is really good. But without thinking about it in that way, it was mediocre at best. The lack of good understanding of proper punctuation and word usage was distracting. The plot itself was interesting but very unrealistic. But again, considering she is thirteen, it's pretty darn good. She will undoubtedly only improve with age and practice, and writing a novel at such a young age is an accomplishment that few achieve. All in all, I'm pretty glad I read it. I give it three out of five stars. ---------------- READING PROGRESS: The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan: 52% Desperation by Stephen King: 55% A New Dawn by...