Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I really enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down. It was creepy, mysterious, funny, sad, a love story and a great fantasy. I look forward to the second book. The author did a great job creating different worlds.

Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

I made it to page 33, and I think I am done. I cannot stand this book. It isn't for me. I think she set out to write as different a book from the Harry Potter books as she could. Congratulations, J.K., you've succeeded. It is one disgusting situation or comment after another. I've read about big breasts resting on forearms, erections, masturbation, coupling, beds banging against the wall, a 5 year old girl pulling her pants down at school and pretending to "do it", boys squeezing a girl's breasts in the back of the classroom and speculation about how a very fat man manages to use his penis - all in 33 pages. It's not Harry Potter. I don't even think it's that well-written. I understand she was trying to write about "dark and gritty" life in a small town. Not everything about small town life is this gross, though. I understand there's rape and pedophilia to come. No, thanks. If there was one redeeming character in this story, I'd persevere. I haven't found one yet so I think I'll quit.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

It was just okay - LONG. It dragged in spots. I liked the history of it. I wish he had focused on fewer characters and gotten more in-depth with some of them.

He spent too much time jumping from story to story. He'd spend a short amount of time with a few characters, and just when you were interested in where the story line was going, he'd jump to another set of characters and start in on their story. Back and forth and back and forth he went. It could have been written in a different way so that it still covered all the main characters, and it would have been a lot more interesting. There are some characters he could have written less about, and that would have been okay, too.

I struggled to finish this - it dragged on, and I'd lost interest several times. I kept checking to see how many pages I had left to read and hoping somehow that it would hurry up and end.

I have the second book - Winter of the World - waiting to read, but I haven't started it yet. I am hoping it is written better and doesn't drag like the first one. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book, and I learned some things that I did not know. I just wish it hadn't been such a struggle to get through.

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Wow. While this is not my usual type of book, I very much enjoyed reading it. It was definitely a book that I found difficult to put down. I bought it because a co-worker was reading Lee Child's "The Affair" and was plowing through it and enjoying it. I did some research on the series and decided to give it a try so I bought the first book.

Yes, it is a little gruesome at times, but the gory parts are not drawn out and can easily be skimmed if you are squeamish. I liked that Reacher didn't take crap from anyone. He went after the bad guys and took them out. I hate those books where the hero has to suffer some at the villain's hands before he finally wins in the end. Reacher only suffers mentally in this book; other than that, he kicks ass.

At one point, he's asked how he feels about killing the criminals, and he says, "How do you feel when you put roach powder down?" Prior to that when he's sneaking up to take out one of the sadistic bad guys, he thinks to himself, "The books I used to read, the movies people see, I should have fought him nobly." "We should have duked it out, face to face. He should have been made aware of who his opponent was. He should have been made aware of why he had to die. All that noble, man-to-man stuff. But real life wasn't like that."

Reacher is my hero. I will definitely continue with the series.