kat’s random thoughts

365 days a year I read.  Sometimes two or three books in a week.  Some good, some bad.  Eventually you’ll hear about all of them here.  Just for those times when you don’t feel like roaming the shelves. 

Blaze by Stephen King

How great is it that once you become a famous, best selling writer you can drag out all the rejected novels from your early career and make them bestsellers too?  Regardless, I liked it. 

Blaze is a guy who could have had anything if it wasn’t for brutal father that tossed him down the stairs enough times to permanently dent his forehead and destroy part of his brain.  He turns to a life of crime and attempts to pull off a kidnapping with his partner who might be dead.  By societies standards there isn’t a single redeeming character in this book, but I still caught myself rooting for Blaze.

Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

Since I started reading SK’s books at 13 with Carrie, I feel like I’m picking up an old friend any time I start reading a new SK.  Lisey’s Story is about a bestselling author’s wife, a treasure hunt, and the relationship between sisters.  Old readers will recognize the alternative world that shows up in most of his novels.  Anyone with a sister will relate to Lisey and her relationship with her three sisters. 

 White Oleander by Janet Fitch

After her mother murders her boyfriend, Ariel is placed in foster care.  Just for the record, I loved this book before Oprah ever found it.  Fiction or not, White Oleander deals with the battle we all face, coming of age, seperating what our mothers tell us from what we feel, and examines some of the flaws in the foster system.

The Death Artist  by Jonathan Santlofer

A serial killer is leaving his victims posed like famous but obscure paintings.  In order to get ahead of him the NYPD calls back into service former homicide detective, now PBS Art Show Host, Kate McKinnon to help find the killer.  I liked this book, several twists and turns, and a nice peek into the art world.