American War by Omar El Akkad

Title: American War

Author: Omar El Akkad

Publisher: Knopf 2017

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Alphabet Soup - E; Dancing with Fantasy and Scifi - Science

An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle—a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself.

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike.

The February selection for the Girly Book Club. This was billed as a brilliant and powerful novel, but I found it pretty simplistic. I liked the idea of a Second Civil War, but the divide and the highly stereotyped and generalized groups annoyed me. The picture of the South depicted feels very old fashioned. With our changing demographics in this country, to portray all Southerners as rednecks was much too reductive for me. I just couldn’t get behind the basis for the groups. After mulling it over even more, why is the divide North/South? Wouldn’t it be more of an economic divide? There’s one line late in the book about how the Reds of the South got their name from voting Republican. Silly… There are plenty of Republicans all over the country and not everyone in the South votes Republican. As for the rest of the book, it felt very formulaic and graphic. I could predict exactly what was going to happen. I also was repulsed by the graphic scenes (and I read plenty of graphic books).

Next up on the TBR pile:

Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser

Title: Not That I Could Tell

Author: Jessica Strawser

Publisher: St. Martin's Press 2018

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 324

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; Share-a-Tea

When a group of neighborhood women gathers, wine in hand, around a fire pit where their backyards meet one Saturday night, most of them are just ecstatic to have discovered that their baby monitors reach that far. It’s a rare kid-free night, and they’re giddy with it. They drink too much, and the conversation turns personal.

By Monday morning, one of them is gone.

My Book of the Month selection for March. I picked this one as it was a read-alike to Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. I really loved that book and was hoping for an intriguing mystery with interesting characters. Unfortunately, this book lacked the hook that got me invested in the characters. For the most part, I just didn't care about them. I wanted to figure out what happened to Kristin, but wasn't perched on the edge of my seat with suspense. The plot line was okay. I was just really not connected to any of the characters. 

Next up on the TBR pile:

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Title: Fates and Furies

Author: Lauren Groff

Publisher: Riverhead Books 2015

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 400

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; Popsugar - Unreliable narrator

Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.

At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.

Our book club selection for September and a huge disappointment. I had heard mixed reviews with the book being compared to a literary Gone Girl. And I would have to agree if they meant that this is a story of two horrible people and their life. I couldn't stand the main characters or the side characters. I was thoroughly disgusted by how the characters treated one another. I was bored with the storyline. I slogged through this one, but definitely didn't want to. Not recommended at all...

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean

Title: The Golden Prince

Author: Rebeca Dean

Publisher: Broadway Books 2010

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; Read Your Shelf

It’s 1912, and seventeen-year-old Prince Edward, England’s Golden Prince of Wales, is feeling the burden of his position. As heir to the greatest throne in the world, he hates the constrictions and superficial demands of his royal life. His father, King George, is a harsh disciplinarian, and his mother, Queen Mary, is reserved and cold. Other than his siblings, he has no friends and despairs at his isolation and loneliness.

However, when unexpected circumstances bring him to Snowberry Manor, home of the four Houghton sisters, his life suddenly seems more interesting. As he secretly spends more time with Lily, the youngest of the girls, he finds himself falling hopelessly in love.

Ugh. So my overwhelming emotion while reading this book was boredom. I was completely bored. I didn't care about any of the characters or the storyline. The constant switching between narrators annoyed me. David annoyed me. All the Houghton sisters annoyed me. I was just annoyed and bored throughout the entire book.

A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron

Title: A Flaw in the Blood

Author: Stephanie Barron

Publisher: Bantam 2008

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 289

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; Read Your Book Shelf; Popsugar -- On my TBR for too long

The acclaimed author of the bestselling Jane Austen mysteries brings rich historical immediacy to an enthralling new suspense novel centered around Queen Victoria’s troubled court…and a secret so dangerous, it could topple thrones.

Totally struck out with this one. My first sign of trouble was that a blurb from Booklist compared it to Carlos Ruiz Zafon. His writing is gorgeous. This writing is mediocre. I didn't get the same feel for a world as I do in Zafon's novels. Beyond that, I hated the switching from 3rd person narration from Fitzgerald to 1st person narration from Victoria. The transitions were abrupt and very annoying. The storyline wasn't very interesting or intriguing. I was bored with the novel. Definitely not worth my time.

13 by Nathan Lachenmeyer

Title: 13: The Story of the World's Most Notorious Superstition

Author: Nathan Lachenmeyer

Publisher: Plume 2004

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 212

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books - W50

While I usually love books that dive into folklore and culture, this one fell so flat for me. I think ultimately my issue was that the topic didn't really seem that well-researched. The book read more like a high schooler's paper about the superstition than something I would spend money on in a store. Thankfully I picked this up at a used sale for $1. So I guess no big loss.

How to Talk About Video Games by Ian Bogost

Title: How to Talk About Video Games

Author: Ian Bogost

Publisher: University of Minnesota 2015

Genre: Pop Culture - Media

Pages: 197

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books - W38; Perpetual (NonAd)

Videogames! Aren’t they the medium of the twenty-first century? The new cinema? The apotheosis of art and entertainment, the realization of Wagnerian gesamtkunstwerk? The final victory of interaction over passivity? No, probably not. Games are part art and part appliance, part tableau and part toaster. In How to Talk about Videogames, leading critic Ian Bogost explores this paradox more thoroughly than any other author to date.

Our book club selection for October. I got a jump on the book due to the baby coming in less than a week. And I'm thoroughly disappointed in this book. Bogost personality is so very insufferable. I couldn't stand his "gamergate" type approach to video games. I read most of this book, but I admit to skimming some chapters. I just grew so bored with his writing, assumptions, and tone. Pass.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

Title: Childhood's End

Author: Arthur C. Clarke

Publisher: 1953

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 240

Rating: 4/5 stars   TV Miniseries: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: NPR SciFi/Fan (perpetual); Popsugar - Science Fiction; Book to Movie

Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth. Manned by the Overlords, in fifty years, they eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty. Then this golden age ends--and then the age of Mankind begins....

My first Arthur C. Clarke book! And I think I did pick a good one. I love how we are throw right into the action and forced to figure out the situation along with most of mankind. From there we get three distinct books showing three different ages after the appearance of the Overlords. I loved reading about the progress of humanity and the implications of having no war, no starvation, etc. Clarke poses some interesting questions as to the fate of mankind. And then we learn more about the true intentions of the Overlords. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say that I was very intrigued by the last third of the book.

TV Miniseries:

I had to wait until J finished reading the book, but we finally got around to watching the Syfy miniseries. And it was bad y'all... So very bad. The first episode was decent although the timeline was accelerated. Annoying, but not really bad. The second and third episodes went completely off the rails. The show focused on Ricky's invented dead wife for far too long. The tone became very confusing. I think we were to fear the Overlords and read into them a sinister intent which was so not what I read in the book. Milo was given an unnecessary girlfriend that resulted in a very disturbing scene right at the end. After finishing, I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth. Did not enjoy...

The Joy of Books by Eric Burns

Title: The Joy of Books

Author: Eric Burns

Publisher: Prometheus Books 1995

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 207

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual (NonAd); Nonfiction; 52 Books - W21

Burns's compelling yet accessible history of the reading experience rejoices in the diverse motivations and methods in the developing relationship between readers and writers even as he voices concern at the powerful forces of ignorance and censorship that seek to keep them apart.

Ugh! So this was my pick for book club this month and now I'm so disappointed in myself. It's been on my perpetual reading list for years because I've seen it referenced so many times on other literary sites and blogs. And yet, I've found it extremely heavy-handed and boring. The first section about the history of books and reading was fairly interested. I knew 90% of the information included, but enjoyed reading it anyway. And then the focus shifted to a diatribe about how kids these days don't read and our society is going to shit. Burns wrote this book in 1995. Those kids he was speaking of are me. I was 13 in 1995 and exactly in the demographic he was lamenting. I and most of my friends read all the time. We did back in 1995 and we still do. The entire second half of the book angered me. Somehow I made it through to the end, but ugh! I am not impressed.

Born Reading by Jason Boog

Title: Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age -- From Picture Books to eBooks and Everything in Between

Author: Jason Boog

Publisher: Touchstone 2014

Genre: Nonfiction - Parenting, Education

Pages: 305

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Nonfiction Adventure; Dewey Decimal

Born Reading provides step-by-step instructions on interactive reading and advice for developing your child’s interest in books from the time they are born. Boog has done the research, talked with the leading experts in child development, and worked with them to compile the “Born Reading Essential Books” lists, offering specific titles tailored to the interests and passions of kids from birth to age five. But reading can take many forms—print books as well as ebooks and apps—and Born Reading also includes tips on how to use technology the right way to help (not hinder) your child’s intellectual development. Parents will find advice on which educational apps best supplement their child’s development, when to start introducing digital reading to their child, and how to use tech to help create the readers of tomorrow.

This is why I don't read parenting books. I hate their tone! The holier-than-thou attitude will never appeal to me. The entire time I was reading this book, I had this image of the author just going "if you don't follow my exact instructions, your child will be an idiot." Ugh! I cannot stand that tone at all. If you can get past the tone, there were a few interesting tidbits of advice, but it was really hard to find. And so it will probably be another few years before I read another parenting book.

NMJ #11: I, Frankenstein

Title: I, Frankenstein

Year Released/Rating: 2014 PG-13

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Miranda Otto

Directed By: Stuart Beattie

Written By: Stuart Beattie, Kevin Grevioux

Genre: Action, Fantasy

Star Rating:  2/5 stars

Where I Got It: Netflix

Trivia:

• This film acknowledges Frankenstein's Monster as "Adam" making it one of the very few screen adaptations to call him this name.
• There are three instances of "Adam" in the novel, all by the creation, all in third-party reference: "Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel..." (Chapter 10) "Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence..." (Chapter 15) "I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine?" (Chapter 15)

Summary: Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.

Review: 

This popped up on Netflix. I thought it might be fun to watch while sorting craft supplies. I was wrong. This was bad. Confusing plot, cardboard characters, and ridiculous action. Even Bill Nighy couldn't save this one...

Best Bits: 

• Adam: I am like no other.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Title: Sharp Objects

Author: Gillian Flynn

Publisher: Broadway Books 2006

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Pages: 272

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Women Authors; Ebook;

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

Sharp Objects was this month's book club selection.  I found Flynn's other book Gone Girl to be very interesting.  I had heard from many bloggers that this one was also good.  So, we gave it a try.  And I have to say that I was a bit disappointed.  I won't give away the twists and turns, but I will say that I saw most of them coming.  The story was a bit contrived and predictable.  As to the characters, I hated every single one of them. They all seemed fake or caricatures of real people.  At a certain point, I would have loved for everyone to just say what they were thinking.  Instead, characters dance around each other in a very frustrating way.  Even the horrors didn't seem real because of how characters reacted to them.  I just was not impressed at all.  It seems that I am all but done with Flynn's work.  I think I'll move on to something else...

Social Q's by Philip Galanes

Title: Social Q's: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries, and Quagmires of Today

Author: Philip Galanes

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 2011

Genre: Nonfiction -- Etiquette

Pages: 259

Rating:  2 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Dewey -- 390s; Fall into Reading; A to Z -- Q

How I Got It: Library loan

A cornerstone of The New York Times’s Styles section, Philip Galanes confronts today’s most awkward and pressing questions with laugh-out-loud dish and practical wisdom. Not only about the new ways to thank a friend for throwing you a bridal shower, or how to deal with a noisy neighbor, but also how to navigate a new age crowded with Tweets, twits, OMGs, and WTFs, Social Q’s is a knockout book that will guide you swiftly through the treacherous terrain of modern etiquette—and keep you laughing for days.

I've decided that after reading this book, I am just not a fan of etiquette/advice books or columns.  I found most of his methods silly and most of the questions ridiculous.  Not a fan at all.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Title: Kidnapped

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Genre: Classics

Pages: 218

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Classics -- International; Mount TBR; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it

The young orphan David Balfour is sent to live with his Uncle Ebenezer. When he discovers that he may be the rightful heir to his uncle's estate, he finds himself kidnapped and cast away on a desert isle. A historical adventure novel originally intended for a young-adult audience, Kidnapped deals with true historical events relating to the Jacobite Rising, and has won the admiration of an adult audience.

This may be considered a classic, but I just didn't love it.  I couldn't really get into the adventures.  I didn't feel anything for David.  I thought he was naive and silly at many times in the books.  Not that I wanted Uncle Ebenezer to win, but David just wasn't the easiest hero to like.  Overall I thought the writing was stilted and pretty dry.  Maybe it's the time period.  I just am not a fan of Stevenson's writing at all.  Not my cup of tea.

Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott

Title: Flower Fables

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Genre: Classic fairy tales

Pages: 140

Rating:    2 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Telling Tales; Mount TBR; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it!

Flower Fables is a treasury of six different stories penned by Louisa May Alcott. These old-fashioned fairy tales have been compiled and edited by Daniel Shealy, who has done editing on several Alcott books. The text is very readable, and has magic flavor added via the font's joining together of several letters. Today's children, like many children of the past, will enjoy meeting Alcott's fairies, sentient flowers, and other real and imagined characters. Illustrator Leah Palmer Preiss has filled the book with delightful and interesting fairies and other creatures. The illustrations are bright and full. Readers may want to watch for the bonuses of quotations and tiny portraits of those who influenced Louisa May Alcott. This book would make a good bedtime storybook, and like many tales of old, has good morals that children could take away with them perhaps without even realizing there was a lesson involved. The afterword is also interesting as it shares interesting details about Miss Alcott. For example, she wrote these tales when she was 16. Another bonus at the end of the book is the biographies that go along with the quotations and miniature portraits. -- FromIndependent Publisher --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Bored.  That's my initial thought after reading this volume.  I'm bored.  These tales just aren't interesting or exciting to me.  I don't want to read anymore.  And I love old fairy tale stories.  These just lacked any oomph.  That's all.  Boring.

Haunts of San Jose by David Lee

Title: Haunts of San Jose

Author: David Lee

Publisher: Schiffer Books 2008

Genre: Nonfiction - Ghost stories

Pages: 176

Rating:   2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Dewey -- 100s

How I Got It: Library Loan

More than a million people live in the city of San Jose, and its ghosts reside right alongside the population. These contemporary stories are the result of an extensive quest for ghostly phenomena taking place from one end of the city to the other. Whether it's a haunted house on Stockton Avenue, the ghost begging for a police officer to find his murderer outside the Japanese Tea Garden, or the ghost in overalls and a cowboy hat at Tres Gringos, on Second Street, the haunts of San Jose will make you shiver as you walk the streets! Now you, too, can visit with these spirits, at your own risk!

Okay, I'll admit to loving a good ghost story every once in awhile.  I love picking up the Haunts of ___ ___  books on places I've lived or visit.  Yet, this volume was just disappointing.  While the actual meat of some of the stories were interesting, the writing and research left much to be desired.  It felt more like someone's short hand notes than a book.  Plus, some of the interviews and stories were very thin...  Glad I got this from the library and didn't actually buy it.

12th Night and Carole's Christmas by Anne Glynn (mini reviews)

Title: 12th Night and Carole's Christmas

Author: Anthology and Anne Glynn

Genre: Erotica

Pages: 227; 42

Rating:  2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romance; Mount TBR

How I Got It: free iBook download

Two short reviews for two short reads.  The first, 12th Night, was an anthology of 12 holiday themed erotic stories.  Some were okay, but a few were truly horrid.  And the other novella, Carole's Christmas, was a pretty tepid retelling of A Christmas Story.  But in this time the ghosts are sexual encounters of Carole's past, present, and future boyfriends.  It felt very use and throw away to me.  And none of the guys were attractive in any sense.  I grabbed these two free iBook downloads as quick bedtime reads.  I've found that short stories or novellas are the way to go before bed.  However, both of my picks were dull.  I wasn't turned on by either of them.  The submission was too much.  The graphic sex with no set-up was too much.  The lackluster men were too much.  The weak, sex-focused women were too much.  I really need to get back to reading historical romances.  At least with those I get a story, however contrived and silly.  It's still a story.

Adrianna's Fairy Tales by Adrianna White

Title: Adrianna's Fairy Tales

Author: Adrianna White

Publisher: 2011

Genre: Erotic fairy tales (I'm calling this a genre)

Pages: 147

Rating: 2 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Telling tales; Mount TBR

How I Got It: Free ebook from iBook store

Adrianna’s collection of novellas take the classic story of fairy tales that we’re all accustomed to and throws it out the window in an erotic retelling of our beloved princes and princesses. The characters are hot and the action is steamy, these stories will titillate both the mind and the nether regions. Be warned, these stories rarely end as we would hope.

I downloaded the free iBook version complete with all three tales. I sped through these stories, but overall was really disappointed.

1. Naughty Cinderella: So Cinderella is a prostitute.  I can deal with that.  It makes sense. But the Prince is such a white knight on a horse that he's boring.  And the most graphic sex scene is one of her clients.  Not very sexy at all.

2. Riding Red Hood: I was confused through most of this story.  Was Red a werewolf?  Was the Big Bad Wolf really a werewolf?  What about Red's fiance Fredrick?  It felt like an abusive relationship to me.  Not sexy at all.

3. Beauty and the Beast with Two Backs: Ugh!  I've always issues with Beauty and the Beast storylines (see my review of Beastly and Beauty).  This one really just intertwined Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty and it just didn't work.  And none of the sex scenes were sexy.  They just made me uncomfortable.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Title: Starship Troopers

Author: Robert Heinlein

Publisher: Ace Science Fiction 1959

Genre: SciFi

Pages: 264

Rating: 4/5 stars  Movie: 2/5

Reading Challenges:  Scifi; Mount TBR; Book2Movie

How I Got It: I own it!

In one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy.

J's initial assessment is that I needed to read this before reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  According to him, it's a political philosophy treatise in disguise.  And I agree completely.  The summary above is really only a tiny part of the book.  Interspersed with stories of boot camp and the war with the Bugs, we get discussions of philosophy.  Throughout the book, I lived for those parts.  At times, I found myself skimming a bit, but then a good paragraph would pop up.  Some of my favorite passages:

"Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain. . . . The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion . . . and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself--ultimate cost for perfect value."(pg. 93)

"War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how—or why—he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people—'older and wiser heads,' as they say—supply the control. Which is as it should be." (pg. 63)

Movie version:

So the creators of the movies took about 10 pages of the book and created a whole B style science fiction movie.  It's not absolutely horrible, but it buries all of the interesting points about morality, citizenship, war and franchisement in crazy action sequences and a love story.  Plus there is really some bad acting throughout this movie.  The leads are just so flat.  I did enjoy Sergeant Zim and Mr. Rasczak, but that's really about it.  Definitely not a movie that I will ever own.  Thank goodness Netflix had it on instant streaming.  (And the sequels are even worse)

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Title: This World We Live In (The Last Survivors #3)

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Publisher: Harcourt 2010

Genre: YA dystopian

Pages: 239

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library; Fantasy

How I Got It: borrowed from library

It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth's climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda's father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda's complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship.

I wanted to like this book.  I really did.  I mostly enjoyed the first two books.  But this one just completely threw me.  I understand the concept that after the upheaval caused by the moon, society would dramatically change.  However, I do not understand why everyone has to be either evil or whiny egotists.  All the whiny, the fighting, the little regard for each other got to me.  I really started to hate many of the characters.  First Syl (my least favorite of the characters), then Matt (for his treatment of family after Syl comes along), then Lisa (she was always a bit selfish, even more now), then Laura (agoraphobic, anyone?), then Miranda (she was always whiny), and finally Alex (his self-righteous "God will save us" act just pissed me off).  By the end of the book, I didn't care of who lived.  I was just done with the series.  The only reason the book still earned 2 stars is because of the first two books.  I liked them (not loved, but liked) so I had to see the story to the author's intended conclusion.  Definitely glad that I borrowed this one from the library.  I will be returning it ASAP to get something that I hope is better reading.

Last Survivors

• #1 Life as We Knew It
• #2 The Dead and the Gone
• #3 This World We Live In
• #4 The Shade of the Moon