Empty Mansions By Bill Deedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. is the biography of Huguette Clark, the daughter of multi millionaire W. A. Clark. W.A. Clark was an ingenious man, who made his fortune by mining for copper at the start of the telephone boom. He attended school to learn to mine after he purchased the mines. He was always ensure that he was educated enough to continue growing his fortune and changing with the times.

Huguette became a recluse after the passing of her mother. She was never photographed after 1920. She had multiple homes worth millions each. The majority of the home, she never lived in. later in life, she was taken to Beth Israel, for cancer treatment. She never checked herself out of the hospital. Instead, she insisted on living at the hospital until she passed away. While she was there she had few visitors.  

The Clarks were very generous people, always helping out those in need. Sometimes, Huguette, was too generous and he lawyers would often times remind her of this. People, would have the audacity to attempt to take advantage of her kind heart. At one point of her life, Beth Israel Medical Center, attempted to swindle over 100 million dollars out of her to keep the hospital open.

I generally am not mesmerized by a biography, especially that of an extremely wealthy individual. I found Empty Mansions to be a quick read that held my attention. The introduction was decent. I found myself struggling to get passed the first two or three chapters. Once, I did pass the chapters, I was sucked in for the remaining of the book. 

I enjoyed the fact that part of the book was written by her cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr. I also, enjoyed the personal items that were included in the book such as letter and telegraphs she wrote and pictures of dolls she collected.  These touches, allowed the reader to connect with Huguette Clark on a personal level. It may be just the archaeologist in me, but this was my favorite part of the book.

I feel this is a book to add to everyone's bookshelf. The book not only teaches you about Huguette Clark as a person but also provides life lessons.

                                                                                                                                                              

The Last Winter of Dani Lancing by P.D. Viner

Generally, when I finish a book, I know immediately that I liked the book or was not a fan. I do not think I have found a book, that I have not at least appreciated. So needless to say, I at least appreciated the book for what is was. When I finished, The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, I sat for a few moments pondering about my reaction to the book. of course, knowing that the publisher and other potential reads would want to know my thoughts of this book. I think I have come to the conclusion, I need to read the book again to determine my level of liking the book. 

The Last Winter of Dani Lancing, is about Dani Lancing, who goes missing after Christmas break while in college. Twenty years, after her death, the case is still unsolved, her parents are divorced and her mom is a wreck. Her dad sees Dani's spirit and converses with her as if she is still alive.

Dani falls into hard times due to experimenting with drugs during her first year of college. Her father is the only one in her family that finds out about this. 

The author uses flash backs in the book. However, the flashbacks are not in sequential order and often times become confusing. The author does list, at the start of the chapter, the date, the event is occurring. I found myself often times referring back to previous chapters to determine how the events were falling into place. For the longest part of the book, I thought the spirit of Dani was the real person. I feel, I may have missed some subtle hints, eluding to her being a spirit. 

I feel the book has potential but needs some more work. I felt the ending was very drawn out. I think it could have either had more action or took up less of the book. The book is supposed to be a murder mystery, but the end seemed like people were sitting around talking about how the crime occurred. Much of the forensics was lacking detail. In one part of the book, the character mentions that the body was washed. The forensics team, should have been able to determine that the body was washed.

I would like to hear feedback from others, on your thoughts of the book.

The Cult of Me

The Cult of Me

The Cult of Me, by Michael Brookes, is about a man, who can control others thoughts. He find out he has this ability when men try to kidnap his mom from their home. He ends up killing one of the men, which in turn saves both himself and his mom. 

He then spends the majority of his life, honing in on his mind controlling skills. After his mom passes away, he ends up homeless due to blowing through his inheritance. He passes the time on the streets by finding two people a day that he judges. He enters their mind to determine their "sins"  and punishes them according. He finally becomes bored of being on the street. He kills five men on the street, two of them being police officers. He allows himself to be captured, so he can continue his "fun" in jail. Jail ends up not being what he expected.

The storyline of The Cult of Me is creepy and innovative. Most of the times, when books are centered around serial killers, it is the same story just done in a little bit different way. The story line is generally, murders have been committed. We are given little clues and it is up to the police or FBI to determine, who did it. In this case, we know right away, who the murders is and why. We then sit back and watch the authorities slowly unravel how the murders are being carried out. I have never come across a book that uses mind control as the mode of killing. 

The book uses flashbacks to explain how he developed his skills and offers an insight into the main character's present day actions. This is a very useful tool; allowing more character development.

The author is able to add to the creepiness of the book by writing in the first person. Many serial killer books are written in third person omission. The reader is sharing the serial killers thoughts and plans as they are occurring. A twist is thrown into the book, while in jail. I was not expecting the twist but it was a well played. 

It is mentioned,  people have a fear of  not make an impact on the world. I think this is an underlying if not predominant fear in most people. 

The Cult of Me is a book that makes you look at the world a little different. It instills or surfaces some underlying fears in everyone. It is a serial killer book with a twist and a very unexpected ending. I would have to say, this is a page turner. It caught my attention from the first chapter.

Noah's Rainy Day By Sandra Brannan

Noah's Rainy Day is an amazing and well written book. I was intrigue by this book once I read the summary. This was the first book I have read by Sandra Brannan. Noah's Rainy Day is the fourth book in the Liv series. Even though, I had not read the first three books, I was able to follow the characters.
Noah is a 12 year old boy with cerebral palsy. Although, Noah is not able to speak or use his appendages, his mind is fully functioning. His beloved Aunt Liv, is an FBI Agent, who Noah likes to help solve cases. When Little Max is kidnapped his father, Maximillian Bennett Williams, III, request Liv to be on the case even though she is three weeks out of graduation from Quantico.
My favorite relationships is that of Noah and his sister Emma and Noah and his Aunt Liv. Noah's and Emma, can communicate using a five finger system, where each finger and knuckle represents a different letter. It was amazing to see how two kids found a way to communicate without using verbal queues.
During the earlier part of the book, when it was eluded to who kidnapped little Max, I felt too much was given away. However, the reasoning behind this made sense near the end of the book. Noah solves the case of missing Little Max before the FBI. He is so adamant about sharing the location of the boy and making sure the boy is safe, he goes to extreme measures to get his families attention.

Noah's Rainy Day was so well written, I could understand and empathize with Noah's frustration when he had solved the case but no one was understanding what he was trying to say. I felt myself yelling, in my head, in frustration at his family to understand Noah. I think, most avid readers have had this experience at least once when reading a book.

The book was action packed. I could not put the book down. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the Liv Series. A very well written book, that everyone should read.

I decided to start this blog as a way to share my love of books with others. This blog will cover a wide array of genres. I will be reviewing both advanced copies of books as well as already published books. If there are any books, you would like me to review, please let me know.