Review: Still Needs Work: A Novel

Still Needs Work: A Novel by Ellen Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I tend towards books on work, fiction or not, but more towards fiction. This book falls in the fictional category. The book opens with Marianne attending a conference in San Francisco, when she gets a heads up her job, and her entire department is being eliminated. She finished up the conference with this new status and heads back home.

Marriane is living back in Kansas City, her old childhood home, which has now turned into not a great neighborhood. She had been working remotely after her house in California burned down, apparently not long after her husband died.

Now she is trying to find a new job and continue fixing up her house, and now being careful with money. Her neighbors and her dog are prominent in the book. As Marriane tries finding a new job she seems to work well with finding work or business ideas for those around her.

The book is told simply, and on a day to day basis. The book grew on me, despite how often it is brought up what a bad neighborhood, being East of Troost. And yet I still liked the character and the neighbors as portrayed.

After finishing the book I found out there are several books about this character, guess it’s a series, but not labeled as such. In any case this book works as a stand-alone.


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Review: Still Needs Work: A Novel

Still Needs Work: A Novel by Ellen Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: In Trees: An Exploration

In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Five

Five by Ilona Bannister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A different sort of thriller type book. Takes place in the underground tube of London and the reader is told one of these five main characters are going to die with the next train coming into the station in five minutes.

The five characters are a mother with her uncontrollable child, and a man approaching her, who appears to be shady. Later we find out they do know each other very well. The other two characters are an older lady who ends up having a heart attack and a young man who helps her. There are several other characters in the train station, several others that help out of the catastrophe not just of the woman on the ground, as several people end up on the tracks.

Most of the book is the backstory of each of the five main characters, while in-between is the current moment at the tube station where there is quite a lot of action going on. The book poses morality question for the reader, which of these characters do you want to die? All have flaws that may have the reader rooting for one character to not make it.

With the way it was presented and the author breaking the fourth wall too often, I wasn't much of a fan of the style. It was a quick read.

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Review: Five

Five by Ilona Bannister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A different sort of thriller type book. Takes place in the underground tube of London and the reader is told one of these five main characters are going to die with the next train coming into the station in five minutes.

The five characters are a mother with her uncontrollable child, and a man approaching her, who appears to be shady. Later we find out they do know each other very well. The other two characters are an older lady who ends up having a heart attack and a young man who helps her. There are several other characters in the train station, several others that help out of the catastrophe not just of the woman on the ground, as several people end up on the tracks.

Most of the book is the backstory of each of the five main characters, while in-between is the current moment at the tube station where there is quite a lot of action going on.

The writing style included breaking the fourth wall too often, which I'm not a fan of. It was a quick read, but nothing too spectacular.


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