Book Review: GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIPS - SCENIC DRIVES by Reader's Digest

 This is beautiful book - both in pictures and prose. Scroll down for my complete review.

GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIPS - SCENIC DRIVES

Compiled & Published by: Reader's Digest

Publication Date: 2/2/21

ISBN: 978-1621455240

Description from Publisher: 

Let the natural beauty of America’s most scenic drives inspire the travel bug within you and get you exploring the wide-open spaces and breathtaking vistas in our country. Absorb the best America has to offer from the slow lane! This collection of scenic drives, broken out by region, features breathtaking road trips, both long and short. Highlighted by over 140 gorgeous photos, each trip also includes helpful info to help you plan your trip. Inspirational  photos showcase why these well known drives are worth the drive. Many of the drives are described in the first person by people who have made the trip, taken the photos and visited the cool places along the way.

My Review:

If you're looking to plot your next trip or if you're needing a gift for the adventure seekers in your life - this is the book for you!

GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIPS - SCENIC DRIVES offers up amazing photos and fascinating narratives from a variety of photographers and travel writers.

At first, I enjoyed scanning through the entire book, looking for destinations and scenic drives I was familiar with. Then, I started back at the beginning of the book and enjoyed reading the descriptions for each of the trips in the book. Much of the writing is colorful and engaging, but there are a few passages that are dryer and a bit boring to read. One of my favorite passages, written by Cathy and Gordon Illg, describes part of  Mount Evans Scenic Byway in Colorado: "At the edge of the timberline, the road passes through a grove of bristlecone pines. They are the oldest living things in the state. One of the patriarchs of the grove sprouted as the Roman Empire was falling into decline, and their gnarled branches seem to wave goodbye as you leave the trees behind" (page 24).

In addition to the first-hand accounts of the drives, the editors have also included interesting nuggets of information about the various drives, and they've sprinkled terrific quotes throughout the book, such as, "Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue -- John Muir" (page 55).

Whether you enjoy taking road trips or not, I highly recommend this book. It makes a great guide for adventurers, a great coffee table book, and a great book for waiting rooms at doctor's offices.

[I received an early copy from FSB Associates in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

Book Review: NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian

 

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh, the premise! What a great plot for a murder mystery/thriller! Vera Kurian's storytelling in NEVER SAW ME COMING had me intrigued from page one.

I've noticed many reviewers on Goodreads have commented that this book reads like it was intended for young adults (YA). To be clear, this book is not for the young adult audience. There are certain rules that apply to books written for a young adult audience, and this book steps outside those rules. This is definitely an adult book. Just because a narrative voice sounds similar to those you may find in young adult books does not make it one.

A few of the things I loved about this book:
1. The first chapter sucked me right into the story.
2. The internal exploration of psychopaths was fascinating.
3. The reunion (no spoilers) of a character and his family at the end actually choked me up with tears! Nice surprise there.


While I loved the premise of this book, there were multiple elements that kept me from giving it a five-star review:
1. I was overwhelmed by the large cast of characters. At first I thought this was a storytelling device to keep the reader guessing about the serial killer, and who knows, maybe it was, but when the killer was revealed, no spoilers here, I was disappointed. Instead of having such a large cast of characters, I wish Kurian would have developed the three main characters more.
2. Personal pet peeves: lots of crude language and unnecessary sex scenes
3. The changes in points-of-view were constant and confusing.
4. The referrals to pop-culture, including social-media hashtags and brand names, were tiring.

My favorite passage from the story:

"Charles was too curious about meeting another psychopath to be annoyed. But Emma didn't fit the bill of what he thought they were supposed to be. He thought psychopaths were supposed to be ... well, like him. Charming and charismatic and able to get what they wanted from people. She seemed more like someone had taken a mouse and dipped it into warm water to make tea."


NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian was a fascinating page-turner with an insightful exploration of psychopathy.




[I received an advance copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

View all my reviews

IWSG: Defining Success

 The first Wednesday of the month is Insecure Writer’s Support Group day!

This Month's Question: How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

My Answer: I have different definitions of success for different things in my life. For the publication of WHO R U REALLY?, I had defined success as helping at least one teenager stay safer online. I’m thrilled to say I’ve received multiple emails from teenagers telling me that after reading the book they cleaned out their “friends” lists online. That’s a huge success. For other aspects of my writing life, I set different goals or "success" identifiers such as meeting a deadline, hitting a word count, and/or reading a certain number of books. Since there are so many aspects of publishing that are beyond my control, I have found that utilizing the tools from THE ARTIST'S WAY, I am able to strive for a satisfying sense of success within my control. If you haven't read THE ARTIST'S WAY, I highly recommend it.

What about you? How do you define success as a writer?