Vacation Reading & Viewing

Here's what I read and watched while on vacation in New England:

 #38: Real Life and Liars, by Kristina Riggle, is interesting and entertaining.  It's a bit like the movie Home for the Holidays in that it juxtaposes three siblings and their parents' lives.  A few predictable angles, but I was largely uncertain about what might happen.

#39: Promise Not to Tell, by Jennifer McMahon, reads like a (high quality) first book (although it's not, technically), but it's got a strong sense of place and a plot that created full time worries even when I could only read it part time.  Points for originality and a steady sense of dread. Lucky me, I passed right through the area where the story was set just after reading the book! 

#40: The Summer of Skinny Dipping, by Amanda Howells, is one that I chose because I was hoping to get away from heavy/sad stories.  It's for young adults, but was a good story made all the more enjoyable by my proximity to the setting.  The heroine's mindset reminded me of the heroine of the Dairy Queen trilogy.

#41: Wings, by Aprilynn Pike, was a freebie, or I'd never have read it.  The plot seemed amateurish, but I never thought about quitting the book.  I just learned that Miley Cyrus will play Laurel (an ordinary home-schooled teen who discovers she's a fairy with the help of a hunky biology tutor) in the movie.  This book seems to be piggybacking off the success of all paranormal-normal kid stories these days.

#42: Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh, was a depressing way to begin a trip.  The circumstances the author  offers for the status of our nation in just 12 years feel probable/possible in a way that really nagged at me.  Some chapters were sluggish, and the main character was often too passive (yet landed one exotically named girl after another).  Aside from those minor issues, though, the tale would make a great movie.  The author info at the end of the book added new considerations.  He sounds like he's got an interesting career, and still found time to write fiction.

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Now for movie #27: X-Men was a fun flick to see.  I'm not a big fan of super heroes or comic books, but I do like action movies and plots with twists and turns.  Plus, this was a movie our whole family could enjoy, and those are hard to come by.