Review: "The Story Keeper" by Lisa Wingate

A story within a story, Lisa Wongate's The Story Keeper follows the adventure of a New York editor following a mysterious manuscript to its roots in the Blue Ridge mountains.

The novel weaves Jen's history growing up in the Blue Ridge together with the story of Sarra, a local legend all the way back to the person Jen thinks may have written it - renowned author Evan Hall. It's no easy task for her to try to contact the reclusive author, who retreated from public eye after his mega popular fantasy series developed a cult-like following.   She also must confront some of her own uncomfortable memories. Her family is living in poverty, trapped in an endless cycle of overspending, under-educating, and being trapped by an oppressive religion.

The manuscript that Jen discovers appears in sections through the novel. As she reads the story, we read along with her.  She was hooked immediately and very attached to the manuscript after only the first two chapters, but it wasn't until later in the book I began to appreciate it as much as the story being told around it. 

This novel definitely worth reading for any book lover out there as its message is crucial: Everyone has a story. Someone just needs to care enough to share it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Tyndale for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "The Story Keeper" by Lisa Wingate

This week I received The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate in the mail from Tyndale.

As I'm about to start a job at a publishing company, the synopsis of this book immediately caught my attention. A successful editor starts a new job and finds a dangerous story in the slush pile. The editor follows the trail of the book to discover the "book's hidden origins and its unknown author."

Sounds exciting! I can't wait to get in to it. Look for my review on the blog soon!

Review: "Just My Typo" by Drummond Moir

"If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." (266)

As is to be expected, Just My Typo by Drummond Moir is a novelty, flip-through type book.  Though I do love a good typo, this book didn't hold much beyond what a blog post or Buzzfeed article might contain.  Moir broke the typos up into chapters of similar types: literature, historical/political, legal, Bible, and even autocorrect typos to name a few.

In some cases, the book told a story about the typo, which were my favorite part.  Specifically, I enjoyed examples of typos that made a reader misinterpret the text so completely.  A Harvard literary critic analyzed a passage from Melville's White Jacket that read "soiled fish" instead of "coiled fish."  He wrote "rather gushingly, that 'hardly anyone but Melville could have created the shudder that results from calling this frightening vagueness some 'soiled fish of the sea'" (11).

In a later example, a misprint in a Bible leads a preacher to discuss what "I am fearfully and wonderfully mad" meant, as the "e" had been left of "made" (141).

Most of the book though was repeated examples of the same type of mistakes, such as four separate examples of when "pubic" was used instead of "public." I get that these are funny because of the serious nature of the documents they usually occur on, but I don't need to see it four times to get it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Interview: Kyle Tennant of "Unfriend Yourself"

A while back I posted my review of Unfriend Yourself, a book about the implications of social media use and how it has changed us and our communication.  It was a book that challenged readers to go three days without social media to reflect on how it affects our lives, especially through our relationships with others.

I've just come across this interview with the author, so it might be worth a read if you're interested in it at all.  He reiterates some of the important messages of his book, namely how some people use social media to replace face-to-face conversation.

The Blessings and Curses of Social Media: An Interview with Unfriend Yourself Author Kyle Tennant

Review: "MindWar" by Andrew Klavan

Former high school football star Rick Dial is sought out by the government for his video game skills in MindWar by Andrew Klavan, the first of the trilogy.  With four months of doing nothing but playing video games after an accident left him crippled, he became the world leader in three different games. His quick thinking and reaction time is put to the test by entering the Realm, a virtual world created by a Russian genius that intends to use it to take over American computer systems.

"My name is Rick Dial," said Rick, and he drew Mariel's blade. "And I'm here to destroy this place."

The demon's face contorted with anger, yet he managed to nod with a measure of respect. [...] "I am Reza. And I'm going to kill you." (284)

Two stories weave through the novel: that of Rick exploring the Realm and that of the Traveler, a man on the run as he assists the government with the MindWar project.  This second branch of the narrative is never fully realized, though, and his role in the project is unclear. Rick's story was interesting enough to follow, especially the dynamics with his younger brother, but the story of the Traveler was too vague and seemed to be more of an unnecessary plot addition.

The book is hokey at best, where a huge suspension of disbelief is required with every page. Becoming the best in the world at three different video games in only four months? Unlikely. The government asking for your help by drugging you and putting you in the back of a van? Exciting, but no.

Another gimmicky-tacky route this novel took was assigning each chapter a title that belongs to a video game: Call of Duty, Portal, Portal Two, Hitman.  The thing that put me over the edge was a chapter called "Words with Friends." I actually cringed.  However, one thing I should have been thankful for was the chapter breaks, since in the last section of the novel they're forgone completely.  There's about 80 pages that are only broken up by a symbol serving as an asterisk. There's 29 chapters in the first 3/4 of the book, and one for the last quarter.

The intended audience for this book is probably pre-teen boys, so perhaps these can be excused. But for an adult reader, this book left a lot to be desired. The plot was barely enough to keep my interest and all of the minor annoyances kept adding up.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from BookLook for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "Just My Typo" by Drummond Moir

This week in the mail I received Drummond Moir's Just My Typo, a "charming collection of
typographical errors, slips of the pen, and embarrassing misprints."

• "Illegally parked cars will be fine." -Anonymous sign
• "Thou shalt commit adultery." -1631 edition of the Bible
• "Sinning with the choir"
• "The Untied States"

Should be a lot of fun! Look for a (hopefully typo free) review coming soon!

To Review: "MindWar" by Andrew Klavan

"Government agents have uncovered a potentially devestating cyberthreat: a Russian genius has created a digital reality called the Realm, from which he can enter, control, and disrupt American computer systems...from transportation to defense."

Next on my list to review is MindWar by Andrew Klavan, from BookLook.