who says you have to be crowded into the living room, kitchen, and/or dining room to hold a book club? we are ladies of the 21st century. we don’t need no stinkin’ couches. so pull up a blog and join in the conversation.
the members of the BOOK HUNGRY are (alphabetically): patty blount, kelly breakey, blake leyers, karla nellenbach, and myself. we pick a book to read. we discuss via phone and/or google hangout and/or on email and/or on twitter. we post a review on our individual blogs the 3rd thursday of the month. click on their names above and enjoy.
this month’s BOOK HUNGRY selection is:
COUNTY LINE by bill cameron
what it’s about from porter square books:
When the steadfast Ruby Jane Whittaker drops out of sight, dogged ex-cop Skin Kadash sets out to discover what drove the woman he loves to leave her life behind so suddenly and without explanation. The discovery of a dead man in her apartment, followed by an attack by a mysterious stalker, leads Skin first to California, then across the country on a desperate journey deep into Ruby Jane’s haunted past–and toward an explosive confrontation which will determine if either has a future.
my opinion:
i can’t lie, this book was work. the writing was smart and sophisticated and the plot took all kinds of unanticipated turns and there were shifts in time and perspective, all of which do not mesh well for me when reading on a kindle. i never seem to know this about myself until i’m in the middle of a book that requires it, but apparently i re-read a lot, especially in the middle of a first read. my mind wanders, i can’t help it. with the shifts in perspective and time in this book, i had to turn back a few pages a lot, which is not easy on a kindle.
this is no fault of bill’s. it’s mine.
this is the fourth book in a “series”. i use the term loosely because the main characters and perspectives switch from book to book so they behave more like companion novels rather that a straight series. this book does stand alone, but bill drops enough hints throughout that made me realize i’d feel less like i’d been dropped in the middle of a conversation had i read the other books prior to reading this one. he’s a wily, ambitious, clever writer what with his making me want to read all his books.
in related news, it was also work to wrangle our schedules for the monthly conference call. it took us over a month (including multiple re-schedules) to coordinate our schedules with bill’s so he could join our call, but as they say, the wait was worth it. bill was full of quips and quotes that had us book hungry gals alternately laughing and scrambling to jot them down.
“writing is, ultimately, an act of empathy.”
my overall opinion is that these characters are well rounded and fleshed out and human and flawed and i wish i knew them better. i’d suggest reading these from the beginning because ruby jane and skin and pete are fascinating and i suspect the things we learn about them (RJ especially) in COUNTY LINE would have been even more illuminating and (to quote oprah) ah-ha inducing had i’d known about their previous actions and decisions.
Abigail Mumford 