Review: The Good Girl

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Decided to try this audio book which I’ve had for a long while and got for free from audible, who knows why. It could be classified as a thriller, or a police procedural, maybe a mystery. There was a kidnapping. The book reveals the details it in real time and after the fact. This is not my favorite genre, but just having the book propels me to read it, get it off the TBR.

Mia is kidnapped from a bar, where she was to meet her boyfriend, who cancelled again to work late. The before time line is not perfectly linear, but mostly and describes what happened, mostly from Colin’s point of view, but we also get Mia’s mother, Eve and her view of before. One other voice is the police detective trying to solve the case.

The kidnapper, Colin or Own, was to hand her over to another guy who was running the show. The problem is the kidnapper didn't want to see this woman hurt or killed, which would happen if he had handed her over. So he takes her to a remote cabin in the woods to figure out what to do.

The other time line, after, is the current time line. This is when Mia is now back at home recovering. She has memory loss of what happened those months she was missing, she also only responds to a different name. Mia goes to therapy, the mother tries to take care of Mia and the detective is still trying to fully solve this case.

In the audiobook there were multiple narrators, one for each character. I don’t mind this type of narration, and sometimes prefer it. In the end the book was okay, and as seemingly typical there are a few twists that were not that surprising.



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Review: The Good Girl

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Review 702: The Mind At Night

The Mind At Night: The New Science Of How And Why We Dream by Andrea Rock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The subtitle perfectly explains what this book was about...the science of dreaming. It starts with the discovery of the rapid eye movements (REM) sleep correlating with the time during sleep of dreaming. Eugene Aserinsky wasn’t particularly interested in sleep research, but that was where he found himself in 1951 while working on his degree. His lab subject was his eight-year-old son. Other subjects were studied and with his mentor they published their findings that REM sleep correlated with dreaming in the journal Science in 1953. This was the beginning of dream research as a science, as opposed to the psychological aspect, such as Freud.

Freud and his dream theories are mentioned off an on, yet mostly in the way of not accepting that everything is sexual based. Often the book points out ways that proves this is not the case.
The book states the 60’s were the “golden era” of dream research, meaning in the United States, where federal funding started drying up in the 1980s. Then dream research was more of a side-benefit of sleep disorder research.

The book ends with stating there are two main theories of why we dream. One is to work out our emotional states for emotional regulation. The other is dreaming is a way of enhancing memory so as to solidifying learning. More likely it is both.

Although at the time the book was published the research was new, I’ve had this book for a couple of decades so that is no longer the case. The first few chapters the writer wrote some corny lines, like attempts at humor or something. It was awkward reading. But by the end of the book the writing solidifies better, those attempts are gone and just reporting the facts has he found them, and the writing was smoother and worked better.

Review 701: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Much has been said about this classic, and my thoughts won’t add anything. For starters, didn’t like it very much. Generally I do enjoy classics, but not this one. I found most of the characters disagreeable (not that I need to like characters to enjoy a story, but it does help). I did like Nelly Dean, the woman narrating the story, I liked how she comported herself. She is the frame, telling the story to Mr. Lockwood who is a newcomer. He is renting out Thrushcross Grange and wants to hear the story of his landlord and the people residing in Wuthering Heights. Being ill he needs something to occupy himself. Thus this story, told in incredible details so many years later, you must suspend disbelief.

Heathcliff is a horrible person, not a news flash. Not the only one either. Then there are the whiny characters. And this was back when marrying cousins was completely acceptable. So many cringey moments in this book, but the ending was completely satisfactory. Just took a lot to get there and glad I stuck with it.

Review 700: The Secrets of Catspraddle Village

The Secrets of Catspraddle Village by Callie Browning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was so short I almost didn't add it in.

This was a very short book of 5 short stories. The setting is Barbados, where the author is from, but set in a small fictional village called Bajan. They are all light-hearted, bit of humor and somewhat quirky. I found it a nice short break from some of the longer reads I've been working on. The audio book is barely over an hour, so it didn't take long to get through the book.