Thinner by Stephen King

I wasn't really a big fan of this book, which puts me in the minority.  I like a lot of King's other works, Different Seasons and The Shining were terrific.  But this one left a lot to be desired for me.

Billy Halleck is a local lawyer who has more than just a few pounds under his belt.  He's fat.  Or at least he is until he's cursed by a gypsy after running over one of the clan.  The problem is he got away with the manslaughter, and the man wanted revenge.  So now Billy is losing weight at an alarming rate and there's nothing he can do to stop it.  Short of finding the gypsy and reasoning with him, Billy is going to die.

Billy is not a sympathetic character.  He whines and moans and blames others for his problems.  In fact, I don't really see any growth in him at all until perhaps the very last chapter of the book, and by then it was too late for me to really care for him as a character at all.  And then there's the gypsies.  They're pretty much stereotyped and not in a kind way at all.  In fact, there weren't any redeeming characters in this book at all.  No one to root for, which aside from a cheap thrill doesn't really make the book worth reading.

I do have to say that the descriptiveness of the writing was very good and up to King's usual standard.  You can't complain that it wasn't filled with horrifying detail or scenes that you could absolutely picture through the description.  But when broken down the plot just didn't hold up because of the stereotyping, lame attempts at humor using racist jokes, and other flashy tricks with no real substance.  This could have been a great book for showing a man trying to do right and correct things to make his suffering go away; but instead you have him whining and blaming everyone else the entire time and ending up just the way you predict he will at the end.

I'll still read King's books, he's got some decent stuff out there and few clunkers like this one.  But I can't say that I'd recommend this particular book to anybody.

Thinner
Copyright 1985
318 pages

Our Kind of People by Uzodinma Iweala

I've read "Beasts of No Nation" and thought it was a good, insightful book.  So when I saw this book by the same author, and saw that it dealt with another hard topic, I decided to give it a try.  And I thought the message he was trying to put out there was worthy, certainly viewing AIDS/HIV in a different way than it is commonly perceived is a good thing, but I'm not sure if he pulled it off successfully.

In this nonfiction, Iweala travels back and forth between the United States and his family's native country of Nigeria.  Most of this book takes place in Nigeria and centers around the HIV positive people he meets and interviews.  It tells the perception of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, by the people who have it, people who don't, and just the overall thoughts of the disease.  It also goes a little bit into the different treatments available that makes this disease no longer have a fatal end and also the different campaigns in Nigeria to try to stop the rampant spread of AIDS/HIV.

I thought he was very fair to the people he described in this book.  He told it in a "voice" that seemed authentic and like the stories were actually from the people themselves rather than him completely paraphrasing it.  So in that regards the people here are very real and Iweala is able to tell stories that wouldn't normally be told.  For himself, he is merely the narrator and while he mentions certain things that relate to him and his family, he doesn't really go into why this topic is so important to him other than having worked in that area in medical school.  I guess it would have been nice to really get a feel for why he is so passionate about the subject.

The actual stories from the people he talks to are compelling.  And they are the best part of this book.  Unfortunately though, they are spaced in such a way and included in with so much other information, that reading this book is somewhat exhausting.  It's like holding your breath for a long time while running and then struggling to keep up when you become tired.  I think better spacers and a sense of focus would have helped this book.  The topic of AIDS/HIV is a hard one to write about as there are so many rumors and falsehoods that Iweala is correct in saying that people with HIV are perceived as different or even bad.  But unlike Iweala, I disagree that this focus is on Africans primarily.  I think that a bad stigma is placed on anyone with this disease, regardless of where they live in the world or their access to medicine.  And that it's just as harsh here as it is there.  And while people who aren't promiscuous or share needles get this disease, it shouldn't be ignored that risky behaviors increase the risk of getting the disease.  It's not a cultural problem but rather a personal one as each individual contracts the disease for a different reason.

It's a thought provoking book, and I'm glad that Iweala took the time to show us a look at people in Africa with AIDS/HIV and their perception of the disease.  You might not learn anything new about the disease from this book, but it does help someone relate to the people who have it and recognize that they are not any different from people who don't have it.  A little more focus and this could have been a very outstanding book.

Our Kind of People
Copyright 2012
217 pages

Big Sky River by Linda Lael Miller

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine program**

 I'm not going to lie, I read Miller's books because of the covers. Oh my! Well, that and the fact that she's my guilty pleasure, I like her romances generally. This one wasn't too bad, it makes me want to go back and read the rest of the Parable series (although you don't really have to, this can be a stand-alone).

After a rough divorce, Tara moves to Parable County Montana to start life as a chicken rancher. She's sad to be leaving her stepdaughters, but life in the country is just what she needs right now. The only problem she has to deal with is the eyesore double-wide next door owned by handsome Sheriff Boone. And he's got his own problems, after his wife died a few years back he sent his sons to live with his sister. But her husband was in an accident and now the boys have to come back and live with him. He's secretly pleased, but scared at the same time. At least they'll have someone to play with though since Tara's stepdaughters are also coming for a visit. And despite her snooty ways, he's looking forward to seeing Tara a little more as well.

I have to say that Tara got the bad end of the bargain in this book. Sure Boone is handsome and helps out a little bit. But the man abandoned his kids (which is softly ignored in the book, although Tara does think about it at some point) and couldn't even keep his house up to par. I know grief does things to a person, but if you have responsibilities and can still handle being a sheriff, it shouldn't excuse you from being a parent for so long. Tara herself is wonderfully nice. She has a way with children and while I can't figure out how she's making a living at chicken farming, it still provides a background for her. There are numerous side characters that are always harping on them to not be single, which is a bit disingenuous, but maybe I'm just jealous because my friends don't set me up with handsome cowboys.

The plot was formulaic, as Miller's books tend to be. She always has a headstrong couple that doesn't like each other at first but then blossom into passionate feelings for each other. I'm not complaining, it makes for some steamy romance scenes, but if you like variety, it's probably not going to be found here. All the kids added in made this book kind of interesting too, since they added to the dynamic and the troubles that the main characters had. One element I wasn't expecting was the religious tone in this book. Miller's other books had hints of it here and there, but this one was a little more in your face than her other books, and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. It wasn't preachy, but it wasn't her normal either. But it was an entertaining read, perfect for a glass of wine and a bubble bath on a cold winters day.

So as it stands I want the cowboy on the front cover. But I suppose I'll just have to live vicariously through another one of Miller's books as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Big Sky River
Copyright 2012
338 pages