Larryisms, Book One by Larry John has some fun spots in it, but it was a mild disappointment. The cover is fun, with an expressive guy’s face making all kinds of serious and goofy expressions. It’s also a cute small square instead of the traditional paperback size.

The book is simply a list of pithy sayings, which ordinarily I’d love. The fun part is supposed to be figuring out when Larry is serious and when he’s just joshing. Hmm, not so fun because of the high “groaner” quotient.

As you may have guessed, the sayings themselves are a mixed bag. Some made me laugh out loud, and quite a few made me smile. I appreciated the somber truth in others. And the rest? Pure groaners.

A few examples:

• “I think going to the bathroom is the biggest ‘waste’ of time.” (groan)

• “When people say, ‘Do you have a minute to talk?’ They don’t mean 60 seconds.” (smile)

• “I am always amazed how often I have to decide to tell the truth. It should be easier.” (Huh. Interesting thought!)

Minor criticism: I know my copy was an ARC (Advance Reader Copy). But there were quite a few quotes repeated.

My personal verdict: I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m glad I didn’t pay for it. On a scale of 1-5, I’d give it a 2.

And the price on the back of $14.95 is waaaaay too high.

Disclaimer: I’m a participant in LibraryThing.com’s Early Reviewers program and get freebie books in exchange for reviews. (Positive or negative, doesn’t matter.) You get to select from a list of books and periodically something from the list will be sent to you. Unfortunately, my review isn’t so “early” … mea culpa. I’ll do better next time!

Technorati Tags: Larryisms, Larry John, LibraryThing.com, Early Reviewers, book review

I admire anyone who can finish writing a book, but Paul Robertson’s Road to Nowhere feels a lot like its title. This mystery has a lot of potential but needs to be pared down and juiced up.

The story’s about how a small North Carolina mountain town faces the unexpected gift — or curse — of well-manipulated state funds to build a highway that will transform their town. Will they accept? Some people are all for it, and someone’s willing to kill to block the construction.

Rating: (see five-point scale and explanation here)
Available from: Bethany House Publishers; hardcover: April 1, 2008

WHAT WORKED FOR ME

Years ago, I got fascinated with the intricacy of small-town politics as a rookie newspaper reporter, covering my first city board meetings. The book’s dialog, procedures, personalities, and sub-text at the meetings rang true. I also found the behind-the-scenes political machinations at the state level interesting.

After a s-l-o-w start, the book’s plot did hook me, and I kept reading to find out who did it and what the board voted about the road. So the author did succeed in making me care. Toward the end, I even grieved a bit at one nice character’s serious injuries. The book’s ending was also satisfying; I didn’t detect the killer’s identity in advance, but it made sense.

NEUTRAL ELEMENTS

This was my first experience reading an advance reading copy (ARC). I had to remind myself that the typos, odd insertions of double brackets at the end of some sentences, missing words, and multiple copies of some paragraphs are probably par for the course when reading something that’s not the final version. Still … my editing hand kept twitching toward my red pen.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME

Too many characters. I came THIS close to giving up by the time I got to page 27, when I had counted 20 named characters so far. It’s particularly annoying with a mystery, because you want to be one of those clever readers who figure out the whodunnit. So I frustrated myself trying to keep track of who was whose father, mentor, boss, or spouse, which one was the wacky earth spiritualist and which was the up-and-coming engineer. I finally decided to plow ahead anyway. Thank goodness, the book picked up the pace shortly after that.

A glacially slow beginning. There were so many characters and so many little mini-dramas and relationships thrown in at first that it felt like I was reading the list of ingredients for a complicated recipe; I wanted the author to go ahead and cook something already. The book’s pacing needs tweaking.

False subplots. Without writing a spoiler, I’ll just say that some characters and subplots seemed to be there only for local color without actually moving the plot forward. The supernatural element was particularly disappointing — lots of build-up, then … nothing.

Distracting drama. Some events, such as the destruction of one building, seemed to happen just to tie a neat bow on an unneeded subplot — not to further the main story. I suppose it could be argued that this is the price for having red herrings in a mystery, but it didn’t feel in balance with the main story; it was too prominent. I felt misled, and not in a pleasant “Oh, you got me!” kind of way.

Stereotypes. The willfully stupid law enforcement, the blatantly unscrupulous news reporter, the wise old age of a board member — I would have liked to see more complexity in the characters.

Annoying repetition. The board chairman, Joe, keeps going on and on on about how “there’s no trouble like a road.” Felt very heavyhanded, as if the author was striving too hard to have a powerful pullout quote.

Loose ends and gaps. There’s one set of people who are mentioned throughout the book and ho set everything in motion, but they remain offstage for the whole book — very unsatisying. There’s also one character who goes missing toward the end of the book. There’s a brief reference to whether he’s alive or dead, but no explanation of where he was stashed or when/how he was grabbed. I wanted to know.

FINAL NOTE

I love this author’s ideas but hope to see better pacing, more complex character development (with fewer characters), and better balancing of subplots with the main story in his next book.

This review was also posted at LibraryThing.com. I was going to post a review on Amazon.com but can’t find a place to put a review; maybe they don’t allow it until the actual publication date?

Technorati Tags: book review, Road to Nowhere, Paul Robertson, Bethany House Publishers

Squee! My first advance reading copy (ARC) arrived today from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. I plan on cracking the cover on “Road to Nowhere” by Paul Robertson tomorrow afternoon right after my Girl Scout troop’s meeting. Mmm, that’s the smell of a high-stakes mystery, just waiting to jump into my head.

It’ll be the first review I post on my site, and I’ll copy that review to Amazon.com and LibraryThing when I’m finished.

Can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: LibraryThing, ARCs, Road to Nowhere, Paul Robertson, free books, book reviews, Early Reviewers