I have a few recommendations today and one book that I really did NOT like!
Going Zero, by Anthony McCarten. This was the last book I read in 2023 and I have been recommending it ever since. Kaitlyn Day is a contestant in a game, hoping to win $3,000,000. She must stay undetected, off grid and under the radar, for 30 days, while Fusion, a giant tech company, is hunting her and 9 other contestants. Fusion has a lot riding on the outcome of the contest - if they can find all the participants they will secure an enormous government contract. But Kaitlyn has more at stake than the prize money and she will be a more formidable opponent than Fusion realizes.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty. Amina is a middle-aged mother, and a retired pirate. She has no plans to venture back onto the high seas, until the mother of one of her former crew members comes calling. She offers Amina an enormous sum to bring back her kidnapped granddaughter. Amina agrees, but quickly discovers that not all is as it seems, and this adventure may be more than she bargained for. This fantasy kept my attention with lots of action and humor.
The Measure, by Nikki Erlick. One morning, everyone in the world, aged 22 and above, receives a box. Inside the box is a string. The strings are of all different lengths, and it quickly becomes clear that the string represents the length of the owner's life. The story follows the lives of several different people, some with long strings and some with short strings. Through their stories, we see how the very fabric of society is changed by people's knowledge of the length of their life. New biases appear overnight. People are suddenly ineligible for certain positions of power if they have a short string. I liked this book. Some library patrons thought there were too many characters to keep up with, but I found the story thought provoking.
Starter Villain, by John Scalzi. This was fun. Charlie is between jobs and in a pseudo-fight with his half-siblings over his father's house, which he has been living in. When his estranged uncle passes away without any heirs, he is asked to represent the family at the funeral. The funeral quickly turns weird when an assortment of characters turn up all wanting to verify that Uncle Jake is in fact actually dead. Things just get crazier from there as Charlie discovers he is his uncle's heir and he has inherited more than just a family business. I know people are going to look sideways at me for recommending this one, but I thought it was a fun, quick read.
Prisoners of the Castle, by Ben Macintyre. Non-fiction. I had never heard of the Nazi prison at Colditz. Colditz is a castle and town in eastern Germany and was used to house prisoners of war who had attempted to escape from other prisons or camps. It housed Dutch, French, Belgian, Polish, and later a few American prisoners. Immediately on arrival, many of the prisoners started trying to escape again. There were a number of obstacles to escaping from Colditz, but no shortage of inventive ways to try. The prisoners quickly formed a society of sorts in the prison, in large part based on the class systems they were used to in military life. I had never read about this part of WWII before and it was very interesting.
And now for the book I did NOT like.....
Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff. The synopsis of this book sounded interesting. A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement and attempts to find another colony to settle in. And truly, the book delivers on that premise for awhile. She is wandering through the wilderness surviving with just her wits and a few small things she was able to bring with her. But..... I won't tell you what spoiled the book for me, but by the end I wanted to throw it at the wall! It's been quite a long time since a book has made me that mad! If you read it, let me know what you think.
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