Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: An unnamed young man is interviewing the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac. The vampire recounts the story of his life before, during and after he was made a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt in 1791 New Orleans.

What I Thought: I wanted to re-read this before reading the latest book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, Prince Lestat. This May 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Interview with the Vampire. I’m so glad I read it again because now I’m psyched to read the remaining four leading up to Prince Lestat. I have missed this kind of complex and gothic, yet luxurious style of horror writing. The vampires of the fiction sub-genre of paranormal romance have got nothing on Louis, Lestat, and Armand as they grapple with the nature of good and evil.

Readalikes: Luckily there are five books in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Also add Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which has been made into two movies and a London stage production.

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All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson

All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: Kache used to be a musician with big dreams, but upon the death of his parents and brother, his grief drove him to give up everything and move to Texas. At the urging of his aunt Snag, Kache returns to Alaska after ten years away. His life takes a fateful turn when he goes out to check on his family’s old homestead and finds that a strange Russian woman has been living there, totally isolated, for ten years. Her name is Nadia, and she has her own painful realities to deal with.

What I Thought: This was a relaxing, diverting story of redemptive love between two quirky, solitary people. Right away I fell into easy step with the interesting supporting cast, and the Alaskan landscape was a character in itself, too.

Readalikes: John Straley’s books, like Cold Storage for quirky people in Alaska, and Annie Proulx’s book The Shipping News for the leisurely pace and the remote Newfoundland fishing village, its antics and atmosphere.

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All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

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Reviewed by: L. Boone

What I Read: All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

Find It @YCLD: Here! 

What It's About: After years of separation, Henry and Celia meet up for dinner at a cozy restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Six years earlier, while both were CIA agents in Vienna, a horrible terrorist hijacking occurred on their watch. It could have been prevented if an agent onboard the plane had not been compromised by some unknown source inside the U.S. Embassy. Six years later, Henry is ostensibly conducting an internal investigation, and casts suspicion on Celia.

What I Thought:  The audiobook narrator, Ari Fliakos, has the perfect voice for this Hitchcockian story of old lovers and spies who seem to be having a friendly dinner to discuss an old case that ended tragically. The book’s author, Olen Steinhauer, is known for his excellent espionage thrillers and this one may be his best so far. This is amazing, considering most of the book consists of Celia and Henry discussing the events leading up to and surrounding the hijacking. Through their rich, cerebral dialogue, the story becomes unbearably suspenseful.  It leads to a thrilling, twisted ending right before the dessert is served…

Readalikes: Everything by Olen Steinhauer and The Dinner by Herman Koch.

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Mess by Barry Yourgrau

Mess by Barry Yourgrau

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: The author writes a memoir about hoarding and clutter from his own perspective as both a hoarder and investigative reporter. He interviews psychologists, hoarders, and even spends time with a decluttering service and in anti-hoarding group therapy. His longtime girlfriend gives him an ultimatum: clean up his mess and his life or jeopardize their relationship.

What I Thought: For those who find the problem of hoarding a fascinating topic and for those who could use some incentive to clean up their cluttered lives, this book delivers. Barry Yourgrau is an endearing, clever, well-traveled and well-read hoarder who is in denial about his issues. He is never pathetic and I was rooting for him throughout. It is a funny and inspiring read.

Readalikes: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Gail Steketee

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All You Can Pay by Anna Bernasek and D.T. Mongan

All You Can Pay by Anna Bernasek and D.T. Mongan

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: All You Can Pay: How companies use our data to empty our wallets by Anna Bernasek and D. T. Mongan

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: The authors show how companies use the data they collect from us to determine how much you are willing to pay for everything you buy. Companies use this “customized marketing” to rapidly change prices and tailor complex “special offers” to individual consumers. The book details how consumers are led to believe they are finding the best deals by shopping online, but in reality fair bargaining is over.

What I Thought: Anyone who thinks they’ve bought the cheapest airline ticket or prided themselves on negotiating a great deal with a cable company or car dealership should read this book. It is quick to read but it will leave you feeling aggravated. You will feel like the sucker you are because Big Data and Big Business know the maximum you are willing to spend on anything. After reading this book I cringe every time I “agree” to those densely-written terms and conditions covering personal data and privacy. The authors include suggestions for what you can do, and the writing is accessible and includes source citations and an index.

Readalikes: Data and Goliath : the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world by Bruce Schneier.

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Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: A successful advertising executive, in an attempt to flee his inner demons by moving to remote Scotland, finds himself instead confronting demons of the ordinary human kind…and possibly a werewolf. Ray Welter made a fortune as an advertising executive whose ads promoted a toxic product. He got the idea from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a work with which Ray is strangely obsessed. When his marriage and life fall apart in Chicago, he decides to move into the house where Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four; a house located on the remote Scottish island of Jura. What seemed like a good idea at the time ends up having rather twisted (and darkly funny) consequences.

What I Thought: I picked this up to read based solely on the great title, but after reading for about ten minutes I knew this was going to be good. Ray’s desire to escape the ‘Big Brother’ world of technology and “civilization” is something a lot of modern people can relate to. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Ray, depending on how you look at it, the island of Jura is populated by eccentrics and other malevolently amusing characters who really stick it to Ray and his dream of escape. Ray took inspiration for his manipulative ad campaign from Nineteen Eight-Four, and then Ray ends up being manipulated himself by everything dark and light, sinister and hilarious, human and maybe not so human in George Orwell’s house on the island of Jura.

Readalikes: 1984 by George Orwell. Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

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Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback

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Reviewed by: Laurie Boone

What I Read: Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback

Find It @YCLD: Here!

What It's About: In 1717, a Finnish family takes advantage of free land to homestead in a remote forest in Lapland, called Blackasen. Soon after they arrive, the oldest daughter, Frederika, discovers the body of a murdered man. Frederika’s mother, Maija, will not accept the other settlers’ belief that he was killed by wolves. As she investigates the murder, dark and deadly secrets are revealed. There is something or someone deeply malevolent at work in Blackasen. Maija and her family struggle to survive the months long darkness of the harshest “Wolf Winter” as well as battle an evil that may not be entirely of man’s creation.

What I Thought: The ending of this book is unforgettably creepy (in a good way!) In the year 1717 Sweden found itself on the cusp of massive change. After 150 years of war the villages were depleted. Add to this several years of crop failure and a plague and the times were very dark. As a part of Sweden’s goal to build itself up as a nation, Sweden gave away indigenous land to colonists. Maija’s family arrives in Lapland at this time of transition from the old animist religion of the Lapps (Sami people) to Christianity. I liked how the author pitted the settlers against the evil that men do and the forces of Nature and the Old Spirits.

Readalikes: Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg; Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

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