My reading has been subpar for most of the year due to ... Who knows? I mean, there are all kinds of reasons. Despite my attempts to address the reasons, my lackluster interest in reading persists. Back in the summer, I decided to quit obsessing about it and just go with it. If I feel like reading (or in my case, listening to an audiobook), then I do; if I don't feel like it, I don't. I used to be quite an avid reader, but, as things so often go in life, things have changed and now I'm not. Oh, well...
Since the last Show Us Your Books day that I participated in (October), I've listened to 3 audiobooks. Two of the books were written by the same author, performed by the same voice artist, and both were published in the early to mid nineties. Listening to them was like opening a time capsule back to a time before the internet, before cell phones, before GPS. It was a strange little trip down memory lane.
Format: Audibook
My rating: 3/5
THINK: The last two critters of an endangered species go missing from a theme park in the Florida Keys and all hell breaks loose.
As I've mentioned many times before, in my experience readers either love this author or hate him. Given that I continue to read his work, I fall into the former. I like Hiaasen's noir humor and the cast of crazy characters that he creates with each book. In Native Tongue, we are introduced to a phone sex worker, a steroid-addicted security guard, a sweet old lady, two not-so-smart thieves, an aspiring actress, a member of the witness protection program, and a former governor of Florida who now lives as a recluse in the Everglades.
This is not the funniest Hiaasen book that I've ever read. Overall, I would classify it as merely "okay." It passed the time and I did enjoy the cultural references to the late 80s/early 90s. It was very much like opening a time capsule given that it was first published in 1991.
FINAL VERDICT: Skip unless you are a Hiaasen fan.
Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen
Format: Audiobook
My rating: 4/5
THINK: After a hurricane decimates south Florida, all kinds of scam artists come out of the woodwork.
I thought this one was funnier than Native Tongue. I just found the situations and characters funnier. I also enjoyed the trip down memory lane with references to the cars and popular culture of the mid-90s (Stormy Weather was first published in 1996). This book's crazy cast includes: a couple on their honeymoon, a sleazy double wide salesman, a con artist/gold digger, and the heir to a hurricane-destroyed wildlife farm whose exotic animals are on the loose. The former Florida governor turned recluse, who goes by the name "Skink," is also in this book.
FINAL VERDICT: Skip unless you are a Hiaasen fan.
The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard
Format: Audiobook
My Rating: 4/5
THINK: A story of a top secret town in Tennessee whose sole mission was so important to the war efforts that most of the workers who worked there during WWII had no idea what they were working on.
My mother recommended this book to me and I'm glad she did. I particularly enjoy WWII historical fiction, but all the books I've read of this time period took place elsewhere, such as France or Russia. It was nice to get a glimpse of the war efforts on the home front from several different perspectives (that of a young girl, that of a physicist, and that of a black construction worker).
FINAL VERDICT: RECOMMEND
Well, there you have it, my whopping three reads from the past two months. LOL! I guess three is better than zero, right? Hope this finds you enjoying the holiday season. Happy reading!
