Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Twenty-five years ago, Dave Boyle got into a car. When he came back four days later, he was different in a way that destroyed his friendship with Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus. Now Sean's a cop, Jimmy's a store owner with a prison record and mob connections, and Dave's trying hard to keep his demons safely submerged. When Jimmy's daughter Katie is found murdered, each of the men must confront a past that none is eager to acknowledge. Lehane tugs delicately on the strands that weave this neighborhood together, testing for their strengths and weaknesses; this novel seems as much anthropological case study as thriller.

I got into Dennis Lehane when I saw the Previews of the movie Shutter Island. I picked up the book and fell in love with it. I was hoping that it would be the same case with Mystic River and I have to say that I was disappointed. While Lehane has a very simliar style to Stephen King, they both have their hit or misses.

Mystic River had too many unnesscary details that had nothing to do with the plot of the story. Even though the book was only 496 pages, I felt that it could have been done in 300 pages or less and could have been alot better. The details pretty much turnt me off of the book and I had to force myself to finish it. However, the characters were very likable but I could not relate to any of them expect Dave's wife. My favorite character ended up being a douche bag though, of course.

I recommend this book if you can deal with ALOT of details but if not, this book won't be for you.

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Reading Vs. Sleep

If you like to read and sleep, then I believe you will be able to relate to this one with me.

You just got home from a long evening at work and you just want to relax. So you decide to take a shower and then to get into your soft comftable bed to read that book you have been trying to finish for awhile. Keep in mind, you are wide awake at this point in time.

So, you start to read and you are really enjoying the book. Best of all, you are finally relaxed but far from sleepy. However, after about fifty pages, your eyes are to droup and you find yourself rereading the same paragraph about ten different times before you even realize that you are doing it. You look at the clock to find you have only been reading for about twenty minutes.

Determined, you force yourself to keep reading. After about an hour, you are content with what you have read and the amount you have read. So you put down your book, turn off your light and go to sleep.

The next night you spend thirdy minutes trying to remember where you stopped reading and what you read about the night before. By this time, you are too tired to read even though you were fully awake ten seconds ago.

What wins? Reading or Sleeping?

A Quick & Enjoyable Read

Most of us have gone into a book store to find a quick and enjoyable read. But somehow we end up with a book that is 800 or more pages just because the blurb is so promising. Therefore we end up racing through the book we are currently reading just because we are excited to start this new amazing book we just bought for $25. So we prep ourselves for another sleepless night of reading.

We get bottles of water, juices and a pot of coffee ready. Then we realize we might be hungry later so we run to our nearest gas station to buy a ton of overly priced crappy snacks. Then we procced by laying up on the couch to enjoy our oh-so promising book.

But as soon as you open the book, you start to get cold. So you then close the book and run upstairs to get your favorite blanket.

Now you are ready after wasting an hour to be prepared for this epic book you are about to get lost in.

Here is what happens:

After you push yourself to page 200, you stop and think.

"Okay so this book is dragging and I really don't care about these details but I mean..come on I am already on page 200. So it has to get better!"

And sure enough when you start the next part of the book, the first line is:

You are so happy because FINALLY this book is getting good. You probably look alot like this:


So now that you are finally in your happy place, you drink two cups of coffee and pump yourself up for this WONDERFUL book. Remember, the blurb promised.

So you keep reading:




Now you are just PISSED and wide awake from the coffee you just drank. So now you HAVE to finish the book because there is only 100 pages left.

So you keep reading the book for about 10 minutes and you finally admit, YOU CANNOT DO THIS!

You pick the book that you just finished reading and start to reread it. Until the bookstore opens so you can pick up a quick and enjoyable read.

I'm back ;)

Since I have been MIA for a few months, I am going to revamp this blog and start over with new book reviews. I have deleted all of my old posts to make room for new ones. I am still doing the book challenge for this year though and I must say that I am VERY close to completing this year's book challenge. I might up the book challenge to 60 books instead of 48 books depending on when I complete the next 7 books.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great time reading.