Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

This is the first book of a trilogy. I'm starting with the first to see how it goes. Leave it to me to finish one book that I was frustrated with due to lack of details only to start another where a complicated family tree has to be explained even before getting into the story.

This was also a "YouTube made me buy it" purchase when I was watching YT on a regular basis. For those that have spent any time watching YT regardless of subject and have fallen for this tactic, you know what I'm talking about. There are many rave reviews for this book, but I discovered that they only raved about the first book; not the entire series. I'm not going to say that I was sold something by a snake oil sales person, but it is suspicious how they never finished the series. I digress.

A snippet from the synopsis:



https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Rich-A...=gateway&sr=8-2

Since it is becoming a habit of editing these posts, I'm going to stick with it in the name of being consistent. I'll be back to this post when I'm almost finished or finished with either a full or empty jar of snake oil.

EDIT: Places book down with a DNF ( Did Not Finish) sign along with the jar of snake oil

In the history of me, books that have "#1 New York Times Bestseller" splashed across the cover and I never get along. I haven't bought one of these books in a long time; thought perhaps things have changed. Nope! The fact that the story takes place in China is not the problem. The problems are as follows:

I'm not interested in a book that deals with real world politics unless that is the topic I'm going for which is never when it comes to reading for fun. If I want real world politics, I can watch C-Span, the news, read a newspaper, check the weather on the Weather Channel, talk about sims...you get the idea.

In books that I've read where another language is used, the author writes a sentence or two in whatever language is needed for the story, then follows up with a translation in English. This works for me, it doesn't break the immersion of the story. In this book, there there is a heavy reliance on denotations. Is this a story or a reference manual?

Just by the title it is fair to assume that there would be touching on social issues. I was willing to accept that, however, when a story starts with using words like 'racist', yeah, no. Like real world politics, I'm not interested in reading such things for fun. It isn't my idea of a good time.

I'm now officially done with trying to read "New York Times Bestsellers" and listening to / watching book reviews on YouTube. Said reviews did not mention any of the above. All they say is that it is a interesting look into the the culture of China. How quaint!

With the book removed from my desk and waiting to make the trip downstairs to the book donation box, I have a book sitting in front of me that came from the donation box. It seems as though I've been talking about hobgoblins too much. The book that I was told I needed to read is called Kingdom For Sale by Terry Brooks. I'll give the book its own post later...

AHA! The Long Night book 2. I caught on to you. You ended on a cliff hanger. However, for a cliff hanger to work, one has to (follow me here) CARE what happens next.

The premise was interesting, but two books of survivors wandering around trying to find safety or family....don't you think it's been done before, like a million, trillion times? Sure, Book three probably answers all the questions, but, at this point, I don't care what the answers are.

On to the second book in the MELT series.

The second MELT book was also good. Are they recycling prepper themes? Sure. But there is a rip roaring story there.

Magic Kingdom For Sale is a fun read. It is a story about a man who leaves the real world of a kingdom that he finds for sale in a catalog. Once he arrives and is declared King, he has to figure out how to bring the kingdom back to its former self after two decades of neglect.

I can't say that I have one specific character as a favorite as many of them became favorites for one reason or another, even the kobolds.

I knew you would enjoy it. It works perfectly as a stand alone, doesn't it?

That said, are you going to read the others?

I recently read "Five feet apart" (a love story involving cystic fibrois - medically themed books and movies are one of my guilty pleasures), after stumbling over the movie trailer on Youtube. Quite liked that one, fairly realistic (I think?), and not overly romanticized.

I found in it a 3 for 2 offer, so I also ordered another I've been curious about, the "Ready Player One" book (which happens to be another book-to-movie project). I'm about 1/3 into it, and so far so good, though it does seem to like the "tell, don't show" technique a bit too much, but I guess conveying the amount of background story needed would've been a bit difficult to tell in some other way in a 300 page book.

It does and I will read the others once I get through all the books I have at the moment that are waiting for my undivided attention. I'm currently listening to City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. I have the physical book and all of its 725 pages, but since Amazon wouldn't shush about a Audible free trial, I decided to take them up on it.

The book is the last of a 6 book series; reading series backwards seems to be my thing and I'm not impressed. I don't know if the problem is with the people that are narrating or if its the story itself that is making me feel meh about it. I'm good for listening to the story for awhile, then I start thinking about either other books I could be reading / listening to or doing something else entirely. I'm ignoring the fact that the book has "#1 New York Times Best Selling Series" across the cover. I didn't know that when I ordered it and since it isn't the usual theme the NY Time calls 'best sellers', I can't blame the lack of interest on that.

Currently I'm forcing myself to deal with it as a means of breaking a bad habit of tossing books that don't hold my interest unless there is something about them that really grinds my gears, but I'm just not feeling this one. Maybe physically sitting with the book in front of me will make the difference, I don't know. I haven't tried it yet, so who knows.

Currently reading The World's Scariest Places Volume II. The weird thing about having a kindle and belonging to a kindle book club, is you get a LOT of books for free. By the time I get to them, I don't always remember why I wanted to read them. Nevertheless, it's pretty good so far. I think it's real horror stories.

I just finished Out of the Cauldron by a guy whose name I don't remember. It was GREAT. He was raised in NYC and brought into Santeria by one of his aunts. He finished as an outright devil worshipper. And then, he met Jesus. Wonderful story.

DNF and shelved City of Heavenly Fire. As much I try to be interested, I'm not feelin' it. When I find cleaning the bathroom more interesting than what I'm listening to / reading, it is time to leave what I'm listening to alone for awhile. I'll circle back to it at some point. Instead I'm now reading A Poison Dark and Drowning; book 2 of the Kingdom on Fire series. I've already read the first book, A Shadow Bright and Burning.

On a semi-related note: I've been thinking about my future book order and what I might like to read as everything I have right now is fantasy with occults, a garden variety of creatures and murder mysteries. I'm not sure what that sez about me, but I thought it would be fun to add some classics to the mix at some point. Can you guess what my eyes were drawn to? Alice in Wonderland and Frankenstein. There is nothing wrong with either one of these, but...

I love both of those tales. If interested in a twist, you might try the Malice in Wonderland series. I read book 1. It was good, but I wasn't interested enough to read the rest of the series, as they followed a character in which I wasn't as invested.

The only thing I like about Stephen King is he bought the car that nearly killed him and had it sent through a Trash-Masher. If that isn't a sweet revenge, I don't know what is.

My mother was a big Stephen King reader when she was younger. If it wasn't the iconic horror novels, it was his dramas like The Green Mile. Eventually, she stopped reading after she started to scare herself. We were big fans of the show Haven (based on The Colorado Kid) , my favorite episode was the one where the Old Testament passage regarding the plagues came to life. That is creepy in its own regards, regardless of who wrote what.

My favorite quote from when he was retiring "I killed enough trees" (his "retirement" predated the eBook craze. I think it was 1997 he made this quip. Although with his active status as a prolific celebrity author, (none of his books went out of print) he only stopped for books. His opinion, solicited or not, is another matter entirely.)

Besides, I'm reading a cookbook that doesn't offer a story beyond how to perfect the macarons you plan to make. Thought there would be more substantial content beyond recipes for sweet and savory macarons.

Finally finished World's Scariest Places Volume II. My reading has been slowed down by the fact that I usually just have time to read when I go to bed, and Mooshu doesn't like the light in her eyes.

It was a good book. It was fictional based on true scary places. There were stories set in Hellstown, Ohio (why would anyone live in a place called Hellstown?) and the Island of Dolls.

The book was very fast paced. It had plenty of exposition, but managed to build that into the action, so there weren't any lulls in events. Quite good.

Now, I'm reading Insects, Books 1,2, 3. It's a horror story about.....you guessed it. Good so far.


EDIT: Finished the first three books. Wowzers! I bought the fourth one and am racing through it.

The story is that there is a rare reptile/insect hybrid living in the rain forest. Very little is known about it except that its numbers are kept quite low by a naturally occurring fungus. A group of scientists go to collect specimens of it only to discover it has learned how to cure the fungus, and is quickly becoming the apex predator of the jungle. Will they escape? If so, will they be able to safely capture specimens to learn how to protect humans against them?

The story is fast paced. At points there are a lot of characters that I tended to think of as red shirts, but the main characters are well drawn.

EDIT AGAIN: The 4th insect book was just repetitive. They have to find MORE specimens even though they had thousands at the end of book 3. Those all conveniently died (I guess they read ahead in the book and died of boredom). They go BACK to the jungle. They get captured AGAIN.

I didn't even look to see whether there was a book 5. I'm done.

So, I went to the 3rd book in the MELT series, all anxious to see what happens. Well, I don't know. So far everyone is in a looooong protracted flashback to his youth. Yeah, I know I'm trapped and have to work really fast to free myself, but first..........remember that time I got a baby chick for Thanksgiving.

Audio book- Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry. 2nd Edition, by Albert J Bernstein

I've listened to this book a few times over the past year or so, but it has been awhile and I'm feeling drained.

I've not read that particular tome, but I have studied emotional vampires. I also worked with one for a long time. It's not easy. I'm pretty immune to it. (I'm one of those annoying chirpy people). But, she had a terrible effect on other people in the office. Most of them didn't even realize it.

As for the third MELT book I was so excited about... meh. It's like the author didn't really have enough story for three books, so he's gone back to torture the past. I've probably skipped over half of it.

The subject matter isn't much fun, but it doesn't read like a textbook or something like that either. If a person were to listen to it, they'd be able relate to or have had experiences all 5 examples of each 'vampire' he talks about. I'm not listening to it because of one specific person, people in general are draining right now. I'm almost done with A Poison, Dark and Drowning, then it is on to A Sorrow, Fierce and Falling. That will complete the Kingdom of Fire series, finally.

I have a gift card I bought a couple of weeks ago. It was for if you bought 2 months of Audible, you get one month free. I haven't used it yet, but I did spend some time on Amazon today creating a 'wish list' as I can't decide what I want other than wanting a audio book to listen to while I'm playing my game, cleaning or whatever.

The List: All of them are classics

Alice in Wonderland
Frankenstein
The Hobbit
Jane Austen, The Complete Novels
Dracula
The Wizard of Oz
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Little Women-Complete Collection
Wuthering Heights
Anne of Green Gables

Obviously there is more than 3 here to get the one free title per month ( I've never listened to the Amazon Originals that comes with a Audible membership) but if anybody has a suggestion of which classic to start with, I'm all ears.

All the ones I've read on your list are great fun. My first impression was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, simply because of the poetry. But, I really don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

I've not indulged in Audible. I have a tendency to block out spoken voice and have to go back and listen, sometimes more than once.

I finished the third MELT book. It finally did get a lot better, but I really did skip a great deal of it. Nevertheless, I was intrigued enough to preorder the next book. I confess I hope it's the last one in the series.

I finished listening to Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry. I forgot about how the book can have a political slant at times which is really annoying, so I skip those parts.



I think I'm going to go on random.org and have that pick a book ( number) for me as I can't make up my mind. Every book or collection I have on the list is over 10-plus hours of listening time. I never get books that are less than 2 hours. I don't have a reason for that other than I don't think they're worth it. I may as well just buy the physical book. It would be good I guess if I had small kiddos in the house. Me and my weird logic...

I find narrators from Audible can either make or break a story. If a narrators' voice irritates for some reason, I'm inclined to block it out. To deal with that I always listen to the sample before deciding whether to buy a book or not. I've thought about buying a Kindle since I don't have a cellphone, but I don't want another screen to look at, so audio books on the computer does what I need it to do. If I want to read elsewhere besides at home, I bring a book with me.

I fought getting one for a long time because I love physical books. But I can't deny a deep abiding love for mine.

I finished A Poison Dark and Drowning. A lot of plot twists happened that I didn't expect and Fenswick is a naughty hobgoblin. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a well behaved hobgoblin, but you know what I mean. I'm about 100 pages into the final book, A Sorrow Fierce and Falling and have mixed feelings about it. I want to get back to the characters from Circle of Shadows by Imogen Robertson, but at the same time, I've finally wrapped my head around who is who with Kingdom of Fire series so I'm not quite ready to be done with it.

This series won't be one that is donated to the library when I'm done with it, so I can always go back to it whenever I'm ready. Even though I had mixed feelings about the first book, I'm glad I stuck with it.

Glad you found a series you love.

I had an idea. I am not a mystery reader, but I LOVE the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. They are character driven, and not so much about mysteries as they are about the crazy inhabitants of the book. Stephanie accidentally becomes a bounty hunter and she really isn't all that good at it; she's just lucky. The books are literally laugh-out-loud funny. Many times I've had to stop reading just to laugh awhile.

If you had a Kindle, I could share my copies with you so you wouldn't have to buy them. :3 But, if you are interested, the first one is called One for the Money. They are fast reads and once you dive in, you never want to leave.

I read them while I was sitting in the chemo chair, and I wouldn't read them any other time during the time of my active treatment. They were my treat for going to chemo. They really are that good.

I went on random.org so it could pick a book for me. The number chosen for me was 6 which means according to my list above, I will be listening to The Wizard of Oz.

After figuring out how to redeem my gift card, I downloaded The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection. Total listening time is 70 hours and 45 mins.

Since I get two Audible Originals, I went with:

The Darkwater Bride which is 6 hours 45 mins
and
Riley Mack and the Other Known Troublemakers which is 4 hours 16 min

I'm good for books to listen to for awhile.

Enjoy them. I read the entire Oz series so many years ago that I can't remember them. I'm pretty sure I bought them for my kindle, though.

Forgot to say, just finished the book Infection. The premise was good and the book, itself, was as well. But, I won't be buying the second one. the first didn't end on a cliffhanger, and the book was awwwwwfully similar to others I've read, so I'm done.

Starting the book Contamination. I don't have high hopes.

Bailed on Contamination. I might go back to it, but it seems like a zombie rehash.

Anyway, I'm read Revelation in my personal Bible study. It made me want to read the Left Behind series, again. Another great thing about Kindle is that I can just buy books from my device. It one instant it was goodbye Zombies, hello end times.

One eternity later, I finally finished A Sorrow Fierce and Falling; about 10 minutes ago. With that out of the way, I can now go back to the Crowther and Westerman Series or pentalogy. Because I'm a heathen, I had to look up what a 5 book series was called.

As I've already mentioned, I have read book four of this series ( Circle of Shadows), so now I'm going to start at the beginning. The first book is called Instruments of Darkness which I'll be starting this afternoon.

Been reading up on DIY makeup books and I am impressed by how one book explains the tactile requirements for things like eyeshadow and lipstick and its functions and the ingredients, appliances, not to mention safety gear for handling things like mica color powder and carmine for example.

A link in the Kindle version is provided for people who learn better with step by step instructions in a video format.

As much as I would buy this book, I still need to buy a wireless internet adapter and a replacement Gameboy Advance charger.

*sobs*