mild WEDNESDAY

Ah, the weekly reading slump has hit!  Finishing up some books that I will be reviewing but nothing else is catching my interest to start reading.  How about a whirl through a few of the books I took back to the library WITHOUT finishing? I hate to think I missed a gem…  

Summer Knight Book Four of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Oh, I forgot about this one!  My library checkout expired before I could really get started reading and I completely forgot to go back and check it out again.  The continuing saga of wizard/P.I. Harry Dresden, this one has some harrowing faerie ‘stuff’ that could destroy the world or maybe just Harry’s soul, yikes!   There are several more in the series after this one so I need to get started reading this again!

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Oh, Neil Gaiman, I ‘want’ to love everything you write.  Shopping list?  I’m enthralled.  Bowling score card?  I feel faint.  American Gods?  …meh… not so much.  Shadow is released from prison just days after his wife dies in a car crash. As he tries to get home, he encounters the very mysterioso Mr. Wednesday who claims to be a ‘former’ God.  And that’s where I lost interest in this book.  I wanted a fun, quirky, humorous book about this absurd premise and instead it was dark, convoluted and I didn’t care one whit about Shadow (was the name generator down that day?) or Mr. Wednesday (seriously?).  It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon so clearly it was just me.  I banish this one back to the bottom of my book stack-maybe it is a better fit for your reading tastes?

  Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill OOOOOH, I had to stop reading this because it was too creepy/scary.  Let me explain, our story begins when mega rock star Judas Coyne buys a ghost!  Ok, not too scary yet.  Then, Judas begins to see the ghost-everywhere.  Out of the corner of his eye, in the bedroom, outside.  The ghost is revealed to be someone connected to Judas’s past and he has an agenda:  mess with Judas’s sanity and then kill him. I didn’t find out until after I checked this book out that Joe Hill is the son of mega creepy/scary Stephen King.  No wonder this book was so good!  I got almost 50% through and just couldn’t take it any more-I know I’m a big chicken but it was so overwhelmingly atmospheric and dark.  The writing is spectacular and the story is tightly plotted but unless you are a fan of having the bejeebers scared out of you-avoid this book!  Sorry, Joe, you have to go back into the book pile! So it looks like I will be rechecking Summer Knight out at the library!  What hidden gems are on your discarded book pile?