Review 572: Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was a slightly tough book to get through, as it entails reading about a teenage boy succumbing to schizophrenia. Caden’s reality becomes mixed up with hallucinations or something that makes sense to him for what is going on.

When he becomes hospitalized it is that environment that becomes like a ship. They are cruising the waters and talk about going down into a deep trench at times.

There are many chapters, over 150, which are usually quite short. They switch between what is going on in Caden’s life and other times what is going on in his head. The book starts with him going to high school, hanging out with his friends, but the chapters about the boat are there early on as well. The timeline isn’t quite straightforward.

Neal Shusterman’s own son has been diagnosed with mental illness and this book was written to help understand what it is like to be the one dealing with the illness. His son also contributed drawings that are sprinkled throughout the book.

Review 571: The Fisherman's Gift

The Fisherman's Gift by Julia R. Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The book was decent, but just not what I wanted at the moment. I pushed through and finished the book anyway and found the ending somewhat satisfying. Since I wasn't in the mood I found the book a bit long, but honestly it probably wasn't.

The story takes place in a small village along the coast of Scotland. A place where everyone knows everything. The main character, Dorothy arrives as the new school teacher. As an outsider she difficulty fitting in, the women shun her. She's used it from growing up, but the man she's interested in decidedly pushes away since some of the women claim he is already spoken for.

But the larger issue in the book is about a young child that washed up on the shore after a big storm. Dorothy takes him in, cares for him until his family can be found. This boy is about the same age as hers who was lost in a big storm many years ago. Taking care of the boy helps her to heal, come to terms with all that's happened in the past.

The book is told in two timelines, then and now, where then isn’t exactly told when but around 15 years ago, maybe more. It’s a fairly sad book. There are so many misunderstandings, secrets kept, and the absolute tragedy of losing a child.


Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 570: Boat Baby: A Memoir

Boat Baby: A Memoir by Vicky Nguyen
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Although Vicky Nguyen is on a popular broadcast news network, I have never heard of her. I’m not one to watch broadcast news actually. In any case, her story of being an immigrant from Vietnam was one I wanted to read. There are some similarities to my sister-in-law and her family, to some degree. Although, I think my in laws had a more harrowing experience with the pirates on their boat.

The first half of this book describes her parents background, their leaving Vietnam, and her early years; these were great reading. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and loved hearing the Vietnamese pronunciation, even though it may be an Americanized version as she states.

Somewhere along the way the story seemed to lose some focus, or maybe it was my interest. There were some things discussed, talked about in the book that wasn’t full explored, left me as a reader wondering why was that included. Other times, a situation felt important to her and her family, but not to me as a reader. Maybe I just don’t get memoirs sometimes.

For myself the ending was abrupt, or overall there was a missing part of the book, what exactly I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it is emotion, although that is not fully absent. In any case, I’m glad I read this book, learned about another person’s lived experience which is different than mine. There definitely needs to be more books like this.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 569: The Final Life of Nathaniel Moon

The Final Life of Nathaniel Moon by Shawn Inmon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 4th book in the series: Middle Falls Time Travel, and was slightly different than the previous three. The author’s note at the end helps to explain it as this story was something he had thought about for a very long while, since before he started writing novels.

The premise of each book in this series has an essential part, which is being called time travel: a character dies, then is reborn again as the same person, but at an earlier part of their life and they remember everything. I find this an interesting premise. What would someone do differently if they could change the trajectory of their life? The person always returns to a pivotal moment in their life.

In this book there the main character, Nathaniel Moon is born as a new person and changed. The first glimpse of this is when he talks to his mother while still in the womb. At age four he discovers he can heal people.

This book brought in more philosophy or spirituality than the previous three books. This was a fairly short book and the ending seemed to come abruptly, but after finishing I can see that it was a good stopping point.

So far I'm still intrigued about this time travel concept and will continue the series.

Other 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 5: The Emancipation of Veronica McAllister 
• (3 stars)  April.2025
• Book 6: The Changing Lives of Joe Hart
• (3 stars)  May.2025

Review 568: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of 8 short stories took me longer to read than a typical book of similar length. It isn’t a long book either, under 250 pages. I think it is the format. It feels like the older I get the less I like short stories. Maybe I would have liked these better when I first got the book, over twenty years ago.

These stories had a little length to each, so they didn't feel like they ended entirely too early. One good thing about short stories is that if you don't like the characters, well it's over soon enough.

My favorite in the group was the last one: Doris is Coming. Here a high school student, Doris is trying to come to terms with the differences of black and while people. She is black and this is the 60s with Martin Luther King giving speeches, sit-ins at lunch counters and other protests. Doris doesn’t understand why her skin color should dictate a different drinking fountain.

All of the stories are told from the point of view of an African American, usually a young woman or girl. They are complete enough, more than many other short stories are. Some feel like they could be the beginning of a longer story, a few feel like what was given was enough.