Mile 81

When I first picked up Mile 81 from the Kindle store I knew it was going to be short being that it was listed as a Kindle Single.  I expected it and yet I was still a bit disappointed with it.

Upon completing the book my wish is that it would have been an extra 20-40 pages longer so that I could get more of a feel for it.

The mystery car, evil entity, whatever it truly was could have been fleshed out more.  Has it done this before? Will it do it again?  Where did it come from and where did it vanish to?  There could be so much more there and who knows, maybe in the future there will be.  I would definitely like to read more about it.

Also, I would have liked if the ending was a bit more drawn out.  It was just sort of "Well, I have nothing else so let me try this" and blammo - it works.
I would have preferred if there was a lead up to how the car was dispatched.  Maybe some sort of happening to give the hero an AH-HA moment before he took care of business.

Either way, much like most everything else Stephen King that I have read I did enjoy it, I just feel that he has a lot of other short stories that are much better than this effort.

The Reluctant and The Willing

Over the course of my numerous years it's not often that I actually sit down with a good book or two.

I'd much rather spend my time doing something that is much more interactive (and not in a choose-your-own-adventure type of interactive) like playing poker, strategy games (includes the like of Risk and Strat-O-Matic Football) watching movies or playing video games (which I really consider to be a hybrid between movies and novels just with fancier graphics).

I do have a collection of books that I am forced to lug around with me and I think I have read most of them, but the amount of books I have read in my lifetime is probably dwarfed by what an avid reader will go through in a year.

Mostly I stick to the horror genre and more specifically Stephen King as his stories always seem to draw me in and keep me interested.  My other genre of writing is autobiographies that lend themselves to the more humorous side of life and wrestling books! 

There was a time when I used to read more often and it is something I am trying to get back to doing.  Over the course of 2012 it is my goal to read at least one book per month.

With that being said, I wanted to talk about two books that i read this month which I really enjoyed a lot.

The author is C.S. Splitter who is an independently published author with a great knack for making characters believable and likable and who also interjects just the right amount of humor during dialog.

In his first book The Reluctant (Crayder Chronicles) C.S. Splitter creates a lovable cast of misfits with every day real problems that you find yourself caring about.  The main character Tom Crayder is your every day average guy with a wife, a job that he struggles at and an expensive hobby who just wants to keep his head above water and enjoy his life.  The people that he interacts with are also real people who you find yourself interested in and eventually caring for.

The Reluctant does a great job of setting up the series and introducing all the main players. It is a quick read and highly enjoyable.  This is the type of story that you read and enjoy because you feel like you can really relate to the characters and their lives.

The second book, The Willing (Crayder Chronicles), grabs you early and doesn't let you go. 

It is a faster paced, more action orientated book that makes you want to keep flipping through the pages to see what happens next.  

When I 1st sat down with The Willing my plan was to read a chapter or two and slowly finish it up over the course of the next week or so.  However, that plan was ruined when I realized that it was 2 a.m. and I had go through about half the book in one sitting.  I swear the only reason I didn't finish the book was because my eyes were refusing to stay open.

So, there really wasn't a whole lot of review in any of what I said - it's just more of a recommendation.

I honestly think that these are two really good books - plus if you go with the kindle versions they are cheap. Buy them and give them a chance.  Even if there is something wrong with you and you don't enjoy reading The Reluctant you only spent 99 cents.  You spend more than that on a cup of Coffee. You spend more than that on most single songs on iTunes.  Hell, even the "value menu" at most fast food joints are more expensive than 99 cents any more.  I really don't see how you can go wrong.

As for the Review.

Tom Crayder is a typical guy who loves his wife and wrestles with day to day decisions as his business fails, his eye wonders and his plane keeps him in debt.

He meets up with guy, Jake, who operates slightly below the law and ends up running errands for him basically to continue to make timely payments on his airplane.

During his travels he runs into a small town Farmer with a timid dog and an intimidating shotgun, a small town police officer with a sharp tongue and a large man named Tiny who wants nothing to do with the police.

Half way through The Reluctant he winds up face to face with an organization who is offering to make his financial troubles disappear in exchange for him helping to take care of bad guys that the police cannot touch.

Throughout both of the novels the thing that really keeps you turning the page is the dialogue.

The conversations in these two books are interlaced with humor and actually read like real conversations.

There are awkward parts and there are parts that give you an actual out-loud chuckle, but through it all it feels real and not forced and that is why you find yourself caring for the characters.

Even through their flaws they feel like people you know.