booksandopinions.com

I finished the 2nd of the 3 books I bought at our yearly art fair a few weeks back. I enjoyed this book as well as the first one I read, Murder in the Choir Loft. This one was “Murder at Tip-Up Town – a Cold Case. This story was set mainly in Houghton Lake, Michigan, and they do have a yearly festival and the town becomes known as Tip-Up Town, due to all of the fishing that goes on. I have been to Houghton Lake a couple times, it is about a 3 hour drive away from me.

It was a good read, easy without overwhelming character connections that have a person confused throughout the whole story. The plot is centered around a young gentleman who asks for Lou’s help in solving the case of his missing grandfather. The characters were well-rounded, and the descriptions of the scenery and locations had you feeling like you were right there watching everything unfold. (I did see one error that I am not sure was intentional or not, but the characters were going to the Grand Traverse Pie Company, and it stated it was located on Apple Avenue. It is actually on Harvey Street).

I will not spoil the plot of this story, but if you are from Michigan, or have visited Michigan, this is a great read. There is not a lot of suspense in this story, but you will definitely be guessing through the whole book who the murderer actually is.

have you read books that are written around your hometown?

I enjoy seeing stories on the importance of reading, and how it benefits not only the reader, but our society as a whole. For a great opinion article on reading to little ones, check out this link: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/08/peg_west_read_early_and_often.html#incart_river

Author: R. L. Stine
Born: October 8, 1943
Wrote: The Babysitter, Fear Street Series, Goosebumps Series, and numerous spin-offs to these series.

Creator and writer of the Bananas magazine, a humor magazine for kids, this is where R. L. Stine started his writing career. You more than likely read his stories when you were younger. If you have children, they likely have or are currently reading his stories.


Quote: I’ve had a very sheltered life. What can happen to you when you stay home writing all day?

…is these two books.

My next college class officially starts today, so I am back at it for 6 weeks. I am hoping this class allows me some time to read books for entertainment as well, but I am excited about this class, which is a study of Leadership, so it discusses numerous Inventors, Innovators, and CEO’s, both good and bad. I am sure the discussions will be many, with great thoughts and ideas being shared. 

I will post what I can, when I am able 🙂

What have you recently read that you wouldn’t have necessarily picked up of your own free will? 

Then you may not like this post. In my defense, this is strictly my own personal opinion, from wasting precious time reading garbage. So…

I have to say, I am really beginning to take issue with the whole entire ability of persons named-or-un-named (Okay, un-named), to self-publish. Everyone is an author now. There are no publishers telling you your book is terrible, or editors saying they wouldn’t use your story on the bottom of their bird cage. It does not matter if you do, or most likely do not, have a fairly adequate grasp of your native language. Punctuation? Who cares. Slang that does not fit or suit the story? Sure, just throw it in. Let’s randomly use text messaging short hand, just because we don’t know how to spell it out.

Having your spell checker show you clean pages does not a good story make. I cannot even begin to count the times that I have seen “buy” used for “by”, and I will not even get started on the whole they’re, there, and their issue that so many “writers” have.

Now, in all fairness, I have absolutely read some great stories that were self-published. The characters were developed, the storyline flowed as it should, and there was a beginning, middle, and end. They made sense. Bravo to you great writers! A publisher should be paying you for your stories, so you can truly make the profits and fame that your stories so richly deserve.

But I am going to throw out some things I encountered in a story that I have tried for 3 days to continue reading, and I absolutely cannot read one more single word of it. This author uses WordPress as their main publicity format, and I truly hope they do not come across this blog, or recognize the things I am going to put here. Yes, as much as I am complaining about this “story”, I have not yet reached that level of frustration at the butchering of what could have been a good story, (in the right hands), to call out this young adult by name and upset them.

I promise if I read about 2 more stories that are as terrible as this one, I will be naming names, and hyperlinking to their pages, just so people can avoid suffering through what I had to.

Am I exaggerating? Absolutely not. Let me demonstrate (and I cannot believe I am even going to go back through this story to show you what I am talking about).

1) Surely, no one’s gona be in there then? (Even without the spelling error; gonna? Really?)

2) I go back into the kitchen and finish my tea, ugh it’s cold.

3) The cul-de-sac looks as peaceful as it did during the day. Not like I was expecting it to become a ghetto during the night or anything. Ha. (Yes, it said Ha).

4) “Oh. Err.”

5) “OH ffff” I sigh to myself while I attempt to turn the key.

6) “Sorry I was er having a shower.”

7) “No you wouldn’t, but every village has it’s dark, ‘rapey’ areas.” Sandra laughs. (Rapey? This is where I literally threw my hands up in the air and said “Enough!” I am not kidding.)

I could not read another single word after I read “rapey”. Now, this is a young adult who wrote this story, as I could tell from the lack of comprehension and experience of the English language that comes from many years of reading it, and writing with it. they wrote this book exactly as they would talk to someone casually. Now, if the whole story had been written in that manner, it would have made sense. But it was not. It was written like it was all professional and serious for a minute, and then it said “Ha!”

So, with that being said, I will now step off my little soap box. To all of you self-publishers, keep up the good work. I am sure it is difficult. But also please have someone who will give you an honest, objective opinion, read your story. The world will thank you for it.