Dad is Fat Review

The final book that I read this semester was Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan. I chose this book because I had seen many skits by Jim Gaffigan and I think he's hilarious. I had never read a comedy book before, so I thought this book would be a good intro to the genre.


This book told many stories that my parents love to tell me about what it was like raising my sister and me. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments and I could definitely see some of these same scenarios playing out when I have kids. Although I'm not old enough to fully understand the situations, I was still able to understand 90% of the jokes.


There wasn't any "downtime" in this book because of the continuous stories, but there were times when it felt repetitive. With a humor, there isn't really a "plot" to follow, so most of it is just one chapter after another of different stories about his family. It was fine by me because I had so much fun reading it and being able to read without thinking about it. It was relaxing to read a book that was focused on humor rather than complex characters and plot twists.


Gaffigan combined hilarious tales with glorious one-liners and "hidden" jokes that catch you off guard. The input of zingers also added to the humor. The commentary on situations that we've all been in and thoughts we've all had also made the book great to read.


Overall this book was a new experience and definitely helped get me into a genre and gave me a nice break from the constant drama and complexity of other books. I loved reading a book from one of my favorite comedians and I hope to read his other book in the future and continue to read books published by comedians.

Books I'll Read This Summer

1. The Innocent by David Baldacci

2. Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

3. Watership Down by Richard Adams

4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

5. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

I chose these books because I want to continue reading from some of the same authors while also exploring different genres. These are books that have intrigued me in the past, but I haven't had the chance to read them. 

Mr. Mercedes Review

So... Mr. Mercedes ... My first Stephen King book. Although I won't say I was surprised, I was a little bit betrayed (in a sense) after a few chapters.


When I first looked up this book, it was classified as mystery. I was ready right off the bat for the usual mystery elements; the detective, the suspects, the closed room murders. Now, the book does contain some of these elements; the protagonist is (or was) a detective who was trying to chase down "Mr. Mercedes", and there is a "closed car" mystery involved. However, there are no suspects, because after a few chapters, we get see through the perspective of the psychopathic Mr. Mercedes himself.


When I realized that this wasn't a "who-dunnit" kind of book, and more of a thriller, I was a little disappointed. I've been reading several thrillers lately and I wanted to dive into the mystery novel more. Big deal, right? So what if it's a thriller instead of a mystery? They're very close to each other. That's like your friend telling you that they have tickets to a tennis game and then showing up and realizing that it's a badminton game instead. "Eh, they're pretty close, right?"


Not only did I not get the joy of trying to problem solve through this book, I also had the disgust of reading things that I really did not want to read because 1) they had nothing to do with the plot and never had any relevance later on and 2) just seemed to be like one of Scarecrow's toxin-induced hallucinations rather than something that would actually happen.


Yes, I understand that this is a Stephen King novel and I should've anticipated the horror element from the start. And trust me, I did. I just wasn't expecting sex scenes to be explained in pain-staking detail and causing me to not only have to skip sections but also throw up in my mouth.  Like I said earlier, these scenes had no relevance to anything else in the plot and instead distracted from the thriller / cat-and-mouse game that was occurring.


Don't get me wrong, I loved some of the descriptions, such as "Hodges has read there are wells in Iceland so deep you can drop a stone down them and never hear the splash. He thinks some human souls are like that". Descriptions like that are just pure poetry. And the scenes where Hodges is deducing what could've happened in the crime scene are brilliant. But by having the story also be from the perspective of the killer, the reader can't figure anything out; it's all given to us.


A lot of this book is about what I would expect from a Stephen King novel, but at the same time, it was like watching badminton; slow, quirky (not in a good way), and downright confusing.

Book Covers



Book covers have always been the first thing that makes me pick up a book. I prefer books with covers that tell a story on their own or contain a symbol or object within the story.

I love the cover for The Glass Castle , because it focuses on the girl in the image, with the rugged edges around her, almost like a photo cut out of another photo. The pose she's in also drew me in because it almost looks like she's telling a secret to someone, which makes you want to read the book in order to figure out who this girl is and what she has to say.

I don't like covers that have eyes on them. I don't know what it is, but the eyes have this deep, cutting feeling that distracts me from the book itself.

For In Cold Blood , I was spooked out the minute I saw the cover. I know that it has a very dark, cold theme, but it still freaked me out every time I took it out of my backpack. Cartoon eyes are fine, but when the eyes are real, it just makes the book that much more terrifying.

I have bought a book solely based on its cover, and it was Incarceron. It was a very confusing book that I have no desire to re-read, but the cover just drew me in with the metallic colors and the mysterious key.



The cool way the key is designed and how intricate the key and gears surrounding it are just pulled me in. The tagline at the bottom intrigued me as well. I wanted to know how it was possible for a prison to be alive and what the key had to do with it.

Although covers don't entirely make or break a book, it is annoying when the book is amazing, but the cover is awful, and vice versa. I think that equal effort should be put into both aspects so that the reader is given an accurate representation of what they're getting themselves into. 

Book #4 Intro

 For my fourth book, I've chosen Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. I chose this particular reward because it won an Edgar Award and I've never read a Stephen King book, so I thought I'd pick one that was more of a mystery novel than a horror novel. My expectations are that this book will have a mix of Stephen King's typical horror elements along with more a classic mystery feel to it that follows the guidelines of other mystery books. My thoughts on the cover are that the book revolves around a murder, which is what the book it about. Based on what I've read so far, it has a lot to do with the plot of the story and the agenda of "Mr. Mercedes". I hadn't heard anything about this book before I looked at the Edgar Award winners list. I know that Stephen King hasn't written many mystery novels, so I was interested in seeing how he writes mystery.


 Since I've been reading thrillers lately, I wanted to read a mystery so that I could really see the difference between the two genres. I also wanted something similar to what I've been reading, but not something in the exact same genre. I wanted to change up my selection a little bit by a reading a Stephen King book since I've never really considered reading his books before. Since I'm not a horror fan, I don't know if I'll like this book or not, but I'm hoping that it focuses more on the mystery of finding out who the killer is rather than focusing on the murder. I also wanted to read a modern mystery book rather than one that takes place in the past. I love detective novels, so I hope that this book gets me back into the genre.

The Short Drop Review

 The Short Drop by Matthew Fitzsimmons is about the story of Gibson Vaughn, an infamous computer hacker who helps investigate the disappearance of his childhood friend Suzanne Lombard. While this thriller may have taken a little while to get started, when it did start, it didn't stop until the last few pages. The plot gets more and more twisted as you go along, and trust me, it's worth it.


 When the book first started, I was skeptical that it was actually a thriller; the first few chapters were nothing but long descriptions of the characters and their backstories and the occasional dialogue. But once all of the pieces cam together and the actual investigation aspect started, it really was a thriller. It followed many of the main "ingredients" that thrillers follow. The nail-biting moments and the constant suspense of wondering who would catch who first kept me hooked. Although the actual "big twist" itself was very similar to another thriller I read, it still caught me off guard. The gradual build-up of the story and the truth that slowly unraveled in front of the characters added to the rollercoaster of emotions. Even though the story got convoluted at times, you didn't really have to think that much about it to understand what was going on, unlike mystery novels.


 The several different perspectives setup the cat and mouse game nicely with sinister characters and unknown intentions. While some characters seemed to serve no purpose, in the end they helped build up to a larger plot. One of my only problems with this book was that one of the main characters, Benjamin Lombard, wasn't really mentioned that much. He is very essential to the plot, and yet we only really get to "see" what he's doing sometimes; he serves more of a purpose in the shadows than when it was told from his perspective. But given the intense nature of the book and the web of lies, I guess it's fitting.


 Overall, I really enjoyed this book, even though the beginning was slow. There were some loose ends at the conclusion, but since there's going to be a second book, it's to be expected. Once the ball gets rolling, it's hard to put it down. I highly recommend this book to people who love thrillers or are trying to get into the genre.  

Top 5 Book List









I've had a lot of different favorite books depending on my age. For this list, 1 will be my earlier years when I seriously started reading (so you won't find things like Junie B. Jones in here).


1. The Legend of Thunderfoot

In a desert, Thunder the roadrunner gets bitten by a rattlesnake, causing his feet to grow five times bigger. In order to survive, he has to learn to deal with this problem and overcome his mistakes. In fifth grade, I absolutely adored this book. I read it over and over again, and it's one of the few book that I've kept over the years. I like it because it's an encouraging story about how you can overcome your mistakes and learn to turn what other may see as a disadvantage into an advantage. I loved the voices of all of the characters and the plot that may be simple, but heartwarming at the same time. I would recommend it to people who enjoy a light read and love hopeful/ overcoming stories.

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In the third book of the Harry Potter series, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban, and word is he's after Harry. With dementors lurking around Hogwarts and the constant threat of danger, Harry starts to discover the truth behind the prisoner and how it all ties into his parents' deaths. I used to get up early in the morning and stay up late at night reading all of the Harry Potter books, but this one caught my attention more than the others. I really like it because it's kind of a turning point in the series where we really start to see what happened to Harry's parents and the kind of legacy that they left behind. It also sets up the rest of the series by getting event rolling. I would recommend it to people who enjoy fantasy and enjoy the other Harry Potter books.

3. Inkheart

Meggie and his father Mo have always had the ability to bring characters out of books just by reading aloud out of them. One day, they accidentally bring the evil villain Capricorn out of the book Inkheart, and they have to find a way to send him back, but it won't be as easy as they thought. I picked this book up immediately when I saw it in middle school because I thought it was so cool how people could bring characters to life just by reading the book out loud. I love the plot of having the powers backfire and having to journey to find a way to reverse them. I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy that's a little bit uncommon and has an interesting journey.

4. Traveller

Told from the perspective of Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller, this book is about his journey through his own life, as well as life in the Civil War. I enjoyed this book because it's from a completely different perspective than what you would expect. I like how Traveller's perception of the war is so different from what everyone else's perception is. I would recommend to people who like historical fiction, but also like seeing things from a different point of view.

5. The Thief Lord

Prosper and Bo are brothers that run away to Venice, Italy. Once there, they're taken in by orphans who steal things for a shopkeeper named Barbarossa. Victor, a detective, is hired by Prosper and Bo's parents to find their sons. In a cat-and-mouse type book, Scipio, The Thief Lord, and his band of thieves must stay hidden from Victor and stay out of trouble in order to live freely. I like this book because it's almost like a calmer version of a thriller, with many twists and turns. There are characters that you could never forget. I would recommend this book to people who want a less complex thriller and love the cat-and-mouse set-up of books.