I just finished an audio book titled DON’T BELIEVE HER. The story question was good, but the heroine was annoyingly stupid in the crap she did. It was almost painful to listen to. However the mystery of “Is the woman who shows up claiming to be the missing daughter/sister really her?” kept me listening. In the end the twists were very twisty and I ended up not believing much of the book. All that said, I didn’t hate it, I just found it annoying on a few levels, while the story question kept me intrigued.
On my Kindle I’m reading CARELESS PEOPLE by Sarah Wynn-Williams. It’s a memoir of sorts, but at about half way through the book, and this is my opinion so far: I’m seeing a bit of an authenticity problem. Let’s say I believe there’s truth in here, along with some creative arrangement of facts to come out the one and only heroine at FB, while everyone else in the company is careless (and sometime downright uncaring of who they were hurting). Also, the policy debates are boring, and repetitive to the point that I forget her original objection to the policy or action. But I do know that her objection, or in some cases, her push to take some action or other, is always based on her (her word) “idealism.” I know that because she talks about her idealism constantly. Sigh…idealism is a philosophical view and frankly, a vague word. I get that she’s idealist…in something. But what?
I mean I’m idealistic in the sense that I believe society should help make sure children are fed, safe and educated because children don’t ask to be born into crappy or impoverished families. And then I could give you several concrete examples of what actions, laws and/or programs I think are are helpful to my view of an idealistic society. So, for one basic example, I believe that if there’s provable physical abuse in a family, there should be lawful intervention to protect, feed and educate the child. And there should be consequences when parents cause intentional harm to their child (not discipline, but harm). Society needs to have some safeguards to protect children when parents can’t or won’t do it. Another example, mandatory car seats are good, while I don’t feel that strongly about seatbelts for adults, even if I always wear mine. So now if I worked at Facebook and had an influence in policy, you’d have a general idea what I’d be willing to fight for and against when it comes to kids and Facebook. I believe in protecting kids. But her idealism seems to be less defined, and a more generalized version of “I’m the good guy” in all things. I want to understand exactly what this author’s idealist views are in concrete terms so I understand what’s shaping her choices.
But again, I’m only half way through and maybe I will have a clearer picture once I read more. I don’t regret reading the book, just….hoped for something a bit more honest and authentic, and a little less…idealistic.
That’s my reading at the moment, what are you reading?
March 26th, 2025 at 6:57 am · Link
Ack, I hate stupid heroines. But yeah, if the mystery is good, I’d keep reading, too. And yep, I agree with you on protecting children whose parents are too thick-headed to protect their children themselves. That being said, I also believe that common sense things shouldn’t have to be mandated – like seatbelts. I always wear mine because the likelihood of being killed without one is WAY higher than being killed with one on. (I firmly believe I would’ve been less damaged had I not been wearing one in my accident, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing to wear mine.) And having your kid in a carseat is worth every second of inconvenience putting her in there. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there without the common sense god gave a turnip, so there have to be laws.
Right now, I’m reading Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout. It’s a Nero Wolfe mystery, and while it was a little bit of a slog near the beginning, it’s getting really good. Next up is a SF I bought to help out an author who’s going through a rough time health-wise. I hope it’s good, so I can leave a glowing review.
March 26th, 2025 at 8:54 am · Link
You are far more patient that I when it comes to slogging through. If the mystery intrigues me but the words are turning my brain to mush, I’ll skip ahead to find out the answer. As for memoirs where the author is the Mary Sue/Gary Stu of their own story, that’s a big ol’ nope for me. That said, I can’t remember the last time I actually read a memoir. Not my catnip. I read to hide. Okay…I LISTEN to hide, since I don’t actually read books all that much anymore.
I finally finished BONDED IN DEATH. It was a great book but for once, it was a story that I really needed to pay attention to, even though the murderer was revealed early on, as is true of most JD Robb books. It was the fine details that made it a 5 star listen for me. I’m currently doing a relisten to Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, the Graphic Audio versions. A new one just dropped and I’m giving myself the pleasure of zipping through the series to get to it. I’ve read/listened to them enough that I can do lots of other things while listening. I’m about 30 minutes away from finishing book 2 then I’m on to book 3.
Cheers to having good books to read! And happy Hump Day.
March 26th, 2025 at 2:25 pm · Link
Wow, you have heart. Based on what you’ve stated, I would have given up on the read. Stupid characters drive me crazy and those that think of themselves as perfect tick me off even more. You’re a trooper.
I’m about to pickup SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins. I just finished Tom Cottons Seven Things You Can’t Say About China. It’s excellent and pretty much what I expected. We all need to be more aware.
Our furnace guy came over around 3:45 yesterday and fixed the thing for me. It quit working Tuesday are 2:40 am.
I hope you’re having a great day!
March 26th, 2025 at 5:17 pm · Link
B.E., I remember when my state mandated seatbelts, and I thought it was a bit of overreach. But I agree, wearing a seatbelt is better than not — although seatbelts do cause injuries and I’m sorry you went through that. The thing is, they keep us from being thrown onto our heads and that rarely has a good outcome. But the point of all that is I can’t get a handle on the author’s ideology when, honestly, it’s not hard to give people examples of what they are. Sigh…but on the upside, there are things that ring really true to me and I can verify with other sources so it’s a mixed bag.
I’m with you on mysteries, if I want to know something in the book bad enough I’ll suffer through some nonsense. Conversely, I have very little patience with romance anymore, but I think that’s because I wrote those for so long that part of my brain is overly critical.
I hear good things about Nero Wolfe Mysteries. And my experience in reading mysteries is that the beginning set up tends to be slow.
Hope your week is going well!
March 26th, 2025 at 5:23 pm · Link
Silver, I’ll give mysteries on audio a bit more time. But I’m also usually listening while doing other things and that helps. I’m less patient if I’m reading it. So I guess being distracted helps me get through the silly or boring stuff?
Dumb characters are hard to take. Especially when they are selectively dumb like this heroine.
I need to get BONDED IN DEATH! I’ve listened to audiobooks like that and constantly have to back up to hear what I missed
I love how you take the time to refresh your memory when a new book in a series comes out!
Happy Wednesday!
March 27th, 2025 at 3:06 pm · Link
Viki, my answer to you didn’t post, and I somehow missed that. Sorry!
The book on China sounds interesting. There’s a lot going on there for sure. I’ve read some of Susanne Collins and like her work.
What a pain to have your furnace stop working, but glad your repair guy could get there so fast and fix it! I’m sure you’re using it at night!
I really wonder what happened to my comment? The internet trolls must have been hungry, LOL!
Hope your week is going well.