Ti | Book Chatter

My return to reality begins tomorrow. I’ve had a glorious time. I’ve read many books, napped, cooked a little, watched tons of movies, organized the house and had plenty of time to decompress, which I needed so badly. After a very stressful end of the year, I feel as if my family and I are in a better place, and I am hoping that this year continues down that path.

Everyone seems to be doing that one word thing where they choose a word to set the tone for the year. When I first thought of a word for myself, I chose PEACE but I’ve been thinking about it and I think SIMPLICITY ought to be my focus this year. My life shouldn’t be all that complicated but with all of the events and stuff that we participate in, so much time is spent prepping or running around trying to get people where they need to be. I don’t want to do that this year.

I want to prepare simple meals.
I want to spread appointments out so that we don’t have twenty things going on in one week.
I want to continue to purge my house of “stuff” because we just don’t need it.
I want each kid to work some down time into their schedule. They need it.

I’d like to go back to the time where people came home and talked to one another. It can be done, right? I’d like to think so.

What am I reading?

I just finished The Troop by Nick Cutter. Now THAT was an interesting read. It reminded me a lot of Bait by J. Kent Messum. It was so intense that I blew through it but I have to organize my thoughts before I review it. It’s wild, crazy ride of a book. Definitely NOT for the squeamish.

What am I cooking?

Not a thing. Cooking would require me to go to the store and that just isn’t going to happen.

What am I watching?

At the moment, nothing. But, I have all sorts of stuff recorded (Lincoln, Argo, Beaches). Plus, I’ve been on a Leave it to Beaver kick lately. I never tire of that show.

This week, rehearsals start-up again for Oliver. School starts again, too. Wish us luck! It’s bound to be a little crazy but I am going to try to ignore it and just go with the flow.

Innocence
By Dean Koontz
(Bantam, Hardcover, 9780553808032, December 2013, 352pp.)

The Short of It:

Interesting characters and setting, but lacking that special something that makes you think about a book long after reading it.

The Rest of It:

One can argue that Dean Koontz does not write books with substance. Yes, his books lately have been a little different from the books of his past. I guess his books have always been page turners, meant to captivate a reader for a short amount of time, but some of his older books have stayed with me for decades.

This is not one of those times.

Innocence, starts off strong. A child is forced to live on his own because of a gross deformity that is never fully explained. He seeks shelter under the city, roaming the sewers and only coming up for provisions. At the same time, a young woman, on a quest to find the murderer who killed her father, also lives in secret, hiding from society whenever possible. The two form an unlikely friendship.

SO much could have been done with these characters. The idea of living beneath the city is one that has been done before, but the complexity of doing so successfully and the mystery behind the “deformity” was enough to pull me along. But towards the end, I didn’t really understand what I was reading or where Koontz was going with the story. There was literally NO payoff. I felt somewhat cheated.

As a fan of his older works, I now realize why I stopped reading him. There isn’t much of a connection between his characters anymore. I still try his books every now and then to see if anything has changed, but I am sorry to say that his newer books seems to lack punch.

I think most of his old-time fans will agree with me, but if there’s been a current book of his, say…within the past five years that I need to read, let me know and I will give him another try.

If you’d like to try one of his older books, I highly recommend Watchers (my fave), Phantoms or Lightning.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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