Review 709: Discontent

Discontent by Beatriz Serrano
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

As I tend towards books about work, mostly fictional, this book piqued my interest. A translated fictional account of Marisa working in an ad agency. I quite enjoyed it.

Marisa spends most of her days avoiding work and watching YouTube videos instead. She has multiple accounts to choose from when commenting and thrives on all the likes and replies. For her paying job she tends to delegate to get the work done.

The book is only from Marisa’s point of view, and is mostly internal dialog, although there are conversations and some descriptions. The format worked for me to have the closeness of the main character. Marisa is having a rough time of it. She has a very hard time facing another day of work and relies a bit too heavily on medications to make it through.

Perhaps one of Marisa’s downfalls is she has very few friends. The one person she befriended at work is now gone. Marisa now skips the therapy sessions and just relies on getting refills for her anxiety. Yet she does need friends.

There is humor in the book, dry and cynical and at moments farcical. Yet the book addresses a very serious problem with meaningless work, isolation and the feeling of being stuck in corporate job with no good alternatives.

Review 708: When the Day Comes

When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A couple of years ago I won this book from the publisher (not exactly sure how, maybe from a webinar I attended). The publisher prints mainly Christian romance, which is not my preferred genre. However, I gave it a chance as there was some interest in the premise.

Libby is a time traveler of sorts. She lives in dual timelines. The book starts one of her lives in 1774 Williamsburg, Virginia and the other in 1914 London, England, although she grew up in New York city. Each day is lived twice, once per timeline. At the age of 21 she will be able to choose which timeline to live out the rest of her life. Although there is another rule, that if an attempt to change history is made, then she will no longer return to that timeline and her body will die there.

For Libby she loves her life in 1774. Her mama was also a time-crosser who guided her for both lives. Living in the Colonial era is not an easy time to live, especially now that Libby’s father recently passed away. The women are now struggling to keep the printing shop going. However, there is Henry whom Libby loves, although he does not know. There is much more family warmth in this timeline as well.

In the 20th century Libby’s mother is very cold to her, while her only love is from her father, who had remained in New York. They are in London to find a husband for Libby. Many of the nobility are looking for rich wives from America (called American Dollar Princesses) to help support their crumbling estates, which is just what Libby’s mother is looking for, to gain further social status. This is not what Libby wants.

The writing and world building is well written, easily understood. Although why this exists, why these people become time-crossers is just a given. The story did get a bit dramatic at times, but I was pulled along for the story and enjoyed my time with the book. This is a first book in a series.

Review 707: Dreamland

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The book begins with the author explaining his own disturbed sleep and how he wanted to learn more, and hope to stop it.

This lead to investigations into many different aspects of sleep. Some of which being interrupted like himself with sleep walking, or other manifestations, such as eating or cooking entirely while asleep. One of the more extreme cases discussed a man in Canada, Kenneth Parks, entirely asleep, drove to his in-laws house and killed his mother-in-law and thought he’d done the same to his father-in-law. Upon awaking he took himself to the police and confessed, not entirely sure how or why it happened.

The book doesn’t linger on this part of sleep only. It goes into a myriad of topics like difficulty breathing while sleeping (sleep apnea), dreaming, sleeping pills and mattresses and the connection between sleep and sports performance. This is not all, Randall covers many topics all related to sleeping. Since it is a wide breath there is hardly any depth found in the book.

It does cover some ways to improve sleep, and while that was the goal for the author and his own sleep, it isn’t the best book for that information. It just doesn’t go into enough depth. However, it can be helpful to some degree.

I listened to the audiobook, and it is not the best way to read this book. The narrator was one of the stranger ones I’ve encountered, being overenthusiastic at times and doing character voices when someone is quoted. Some of the accents the narrator does aren’t well done either, which did give me a chuckle. For a non-fiction book it was all very odd. Perhaps this narrator is better suited to fictional books. In any case it didn’t detract from the material too much.

Review 706: Burn Down Master's House

Burn Down Master's House by Clay Cane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



In the introduction the author states this book will make you uncomfortable and he definitely achieved that. We have four stories that could be four individual short stories. However, they build on each other. The main character in each story changes, but in the last they all come together more fully. The book takes place in the time of slavery in the South in United States with the main characters being enslaved, with a couple of exceptions.

The first story introduces us to Magnolia Row, the plantation, one of the cruelest in the area. After the events in this story the slaves scatter. The characters in all of the stories are all related in some way to Magnolia Row. In the last story the civil war has begun.

Each character finds a way to fight for their freedom, often in brutal way, paying retribution on their masters. But not always. In one story we have Charity Butler who is gains her freedom (for a time) by the laws in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This story in particular is based on true events.
Several other aspects of these stories are historically accurate. It does take some of the more brutal parts of history, but also shows how people persevered and reclaimed their lives. The book overall feels one sided, with very minimal white people being decent. The characters are not very nuanced. However, it does have one black man being just as cruel when becoming a slaveowner himself.

I listened to the audio which is narrated by the author, but did not really enjoy the narration style. It made a difficult book even more difficult to get through. The words were enunciated very deliberately and slowly, with a pause after every word. I had to speed up the narration more than I typically would to find a better reading pace, which helped. If there is any interest in reading this book my suggestion is to avoid the audiobook.

Review 705: The Vigilante Life of Scott Mckenzie

The Vigilante Life of Scott Mckenzie by Shawn Inmon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the seventh book in the Middle Falls Time Travel series, one of the few series I've continued to follow. While the writing itself isn't particularly strong, with more exposition than anything else, the central premise is compelling enough that I have kept reading them.

The time-travel premise in each book is that the main character dies, often self-inflicted in some way, then is “reset” as the same person to an earlier, pivotal point in their life. The character remembers what happened in their previous life, so they can make changes. This premise is what I find interesting. What would someone do differently if they could change the trajectory of their life?

In this book, Scott McKenzie is a Vietnam veteran wounded both physically. Emotionally he was wounded from early in life, as he grew up in a violent house, until age ten, when his father killed his mother then himself. It took Scott several "lifetimes" to discover his purpose, stopping those who would harm innocent people. This book contains considerably more violence than the previous books in the series, which did not appeal much to me.

Although each novel is a standalone story, characters from earlier books occasionally make appearances. That happens here as well, when Scott eventually meets and befriends the main character from the previous book. Perhaps my memory is not what it used to be, but I barely remembered Scott from that earlier story. Or, maybe he wasn’t mentioned much in that prior book. In any case, I do enjoy the crossovers.

One unexpected bonus with this book was that my husband listened to it with me during a road trip to a family wedding. Since he doesn’t read as much as me, it was nice to find a book he and I both could enjoy, and help make the long drive pass more quickly.

Previously Read Middle Falls Time Travel Series books:

• Book 1: The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver
• (4 stars) July.2024
• Book 2: The Redemption of Michael Hollister
• (4 stars) July.2024
• Book 3: The Death and Life of Dominick Davidner 
• (3 stars)  September.2024
• Book 4: The Final Life of Nathaniel Moon
• (4 stars)  April.2025
• Book 5: The Emancipation of Veronica McAllister 
• (3 stars)  April.2025
• Book 6: The Changing Lives of Joe Hart
• (3 stars)  May.2025

Review 704: The Autobiography of My Mother

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After taking a Caribbean literature class in college I bought this book, then did not read it. So after a couple of decades it was finally time. I went into the book somewhat blindly knowing nothing about the story.

Xuela Claudette Richardson was born without a mother as she died in childbirth. Her father, not knowing what to do with her gave her to his laundress as if she was dirty laundry. This woman did not love her. Her father ruled her life, to some extent, but was distant and one could hardly say he loved her. She was born of mixed race in Dominica. Her father sent her to school, actually more schooling than would be expected of a girl in that country. She did not make any close friends. Zuela instead would find what she needed from her own self. She could only rely in her own mind and body.

For much of the book it is somewhat sexual but the language used is not graphic nor what you may find in most typical books. It is the language that propels this book. It is poetic it is sensual.
Zuela’s world is a harsh one. That she claims herself and knows what she wants is amazing. She makes no apologies, lives fully in the world where she is born into, surprising self-accomplishment.

The book is all Zuela’s words of her mind and very little interaction with others as far as dialogue. Yet it works. This is to be read for language and writing style, not so much for the content. And that is what my rating reflects.

Review 703: 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.

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.