I couldn’t read fast enough

  This is a novel by John Burley who has written previously.  [Note to self: look into reading those titles]  This is called The Forgetting Place, and it is a fast-paced read that begins at Menaker Hosptial….a state hospital….a correctional psychiatric facility.  Five years early, Dr. Lise Shields arrives to this place that she finds depressing from the start, but when a patient, Jason Edwards, arrives with no paperwork and no reason for being admitted….Dr. Shields life grows dangerous.   She wants to help this man that she knows so little about, but suddenly she learns more than she could imagine about him.  Two men are watching her…following her.  Dr. Wagner, the head psychiatrist, provides no answers and seems to be part of the danger.  She wants to save Jason Edwards….to help him….but she feels alone and unsure who she can trust.

The story reads quickly and twists and turns in all the right places….the ending was phenomenal .  I highly recommend that you read this….soon.  Like now.  Seriously.

 

Side note:  this is a follow-up to his book The Absence of Mercy.  Not sure how that would change this book….but I had no confusion in reading this one.  I will go and read the first one….no question.

Terrifying close to my heart

   I read this book in a few short hours….I cried and cried.  That was my warning to you.  I am a mother of four boys, and my husband and I are trying raise them to be kind.  Just like the parents in this book.  Jake is a quiet, reflective, smart boy.  He appears almost antisocial to others, but his father understands him.  They have this incredible relationship….enviable.  Immediately in the story, we discover there has been a shooting at the high school.  Parents rush the school to learn that 13 students have been killed.  A shooter is dead.  Jake’s father waits to learn the fate of his son….he is the last to learn.  Jake is missing, and he is believed to be the second shooter.

Jake’s father, Simon Connolly, has been a stay-at-home dad since his two children were wee little.  He has kept Jake from play dates because he has never been comfortable spending afternoons with mothers of other children.  He feels he is to blame for his son’s introverted behaviors, and in a way for the tragic events at the high school.  It was Jake who had befriended the troubled boy who would later become the shooter in the school.  It was Jake who chose to hang out with him when everyone else in town thought he was strange, weird.  It was Jake who showed kindness, friendship, and empathy to this young boy who was not kind to others.  And now thirteen children are dead and Jake is a suspect, but Jake is missing.  Simon will do all he can to find his son….no matter what he did.

A story that touched my heart and made me see things a bit differently.

Life in the new technology era

  Matt Richtel has spun a fascinating  true narrative revolving around a horrific car accident in Utah.  The accident occurred in 2006, and it took the lives of two rocket scientists.  Reggie Shaw is a quiet, responsible young man who was driving to work on a rainy morning.  He seemed distracted according to the man who was behind Reggie for several miles.  Reggie’s car slowly drifts into the oncoming lane and brushes a car….a car with two rocket scientists on their way to work.  Both scientist would be killed instantly.  Reggie has no idea what happened.

The book bounces between the story of the accident and the events that unfold in the years following, and it looks into the study of the human mind and how technology affects the mind.  Just how much information can our minds handle?  How much can we focus when we are enveloped with technology everywhere….primarily our smartphones.

The book is fascinating…a bit technical in parts, but truly fascinating.  It begs the question:  “are we now slaves to our technology that once was a slave to us?”