Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen

Book three of the recommended five “Beach books”.

This one is interesting – a page turner.  Its written with a comedic twist and dramatic flair in the spirit of Elmore Leonard. 

Some weirdo wants to rid Florida of all tourism and residents, if possible, and turn the state over to the animals that were the original inhabitants.

Who is killing high profile people and random residents and tourists?  A maniac who believes he is starting a revolution.  He may have a good point in the fact that a lot of wetlands have been developed into hotels and condominiums and a lot of animals have been displaced from their original habitat, but killing people will not stop development. 

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

So this is book two of five books recommended by REAL SIMPLE magazine as a “beach read”.  I beg to differ on this selection as a “beach read”. 

I had heard of this book before but was never interested in reading it.  Since I can be “anal” when it comes to lists and completing a reading challenge, I decided to read it just to complete the list of five.

It’s a memoir of Baroness Karen Blixen when she lived in Africa, owning a coffee plantation.  It is filled with stories that bob and weave during the years (1914-1931) that she lived there.

A native of Denmark, she and her husband came to Africa and began to manage a coffee farm.  When they separated, she decided to stay and run the farm. This story is her memoir of that time and she tells tales of animals and people who have come to live at her house, visit her house and die at her house.

The farm was in Nairobi, at the foot of the Ngong Hills in Kenya.  The people she lived near were called Kikuyu.  They came to have a mutual respect for one another.

Along with running the coffee farm, she had an evening school on the farm and also performed as a doctor in cases when someone was sick or hurt.  She also had no fear to use a rifle and hunt.  In between running the farm, she had a love affair with a big-game safari hunter, Denys Finch-Hatton.

She was a story teller.  Denys liked to hear her tell stories.  I must admit that I enjoyed the telling of her story – Out Of Africa – and I also enjoyed watching the movie. 

The Vacationers, by Emma Straub

This was selected as a “beach read” by an article in REAL SIMPLE Magazine, June 2015 edition.  My definition of a beach read is something easily read and fun.  That was true in this case.   It was a quick, easy, light read.  The story plot was easy. One husband cheats on wife. One young man cheats on young girl. Another husband cheated on husband.  Each pair of characters in the story faced the same situation.  They also overcame it. 

The setting was in Mallorca, an island belonging to Spain.  It sounded beautiful and  relaxing and now I want to visit.

The Post family has family vacations every year, but this one will be tense.  Mother and father, brother and live-in girlfriend, sister and 2 close friends of mother decide to spend 14 glorious days doing nothing but swimming, eating, reading and trying to stay clear of their associated partners.    Franny and Jim Post are supposed to be celebrating their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.  Instead they will be deciding if they can overcome Jim’s infidelity.  Sylvia is going away to college and having her own sexual turmoil.  Her brother Bobby is bringing the girlfriend that no one likes and Franny’s friend Charles will be there with his husband.  Fun fun fun.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The basis for me reading this book was that I read somewhere a movie was being made of this book and I was intrigued by the title.  I like to read the book before seeing the movie.

I liked the story line and it’s a book that makes you want to keep reading.  I finished the last 9 chapters in the same day.

Set in 2041, the world is going through an energy crisis. Poverty and disease are running rampant.  People are living off of food vouchers and living in trailers parks where trailers are stacked vertically.

Apart from the real world, there is OASIS. An on-line virtual reality system that grants you access to another world, so to speak.  The main character Wade attends school through OASIS and basically stays connected 24-7-365.  In Oasis, you can teleport from place to place, fly spaceships and be anything you want and do anything you want with your own avatar.  There are levels granted to each avatar depending on your experience.  These levels are increased based on the quests you choose and what you gain as far as experience points and artifacts that allow you to do magical things in OASIS.   

The fun begins when the OASIS creator dies and leaves his fortune to the person who can find an "egg" that he has hidden.  This begins a cut-throat rampage to be the first person to decipher clues left behind and gain a fortune.

The story takes you through a history if video games, movies from the 80’s and gaming consoles.  It was like a blast from the past for me.  I am not a “gaming nerd”, but have played my fare share of video games and newly upgraded to “apps”.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

Wow!!

 

Hattie had eleven children.  Among them, Franklin, Ella, Bell and Cassie, to name a few.   I said “had” for a reason.  This story is about twelve of her family members, the twelfth being her grandchild. 

Each of her children have their own story and life to tell about.  One was stricken with tuberculosis, one had a bout with rage when his mother was spoken ill of and one had a homosexual encounter.

Hattie was passionate - when she made love to her husband August, when she showed no emotion to any of her children, and when she showed hatred towards her husband during their arguments.  She provided what she could of the basic necessities and that was that. 

I found this story to be so lifelike in all its dramatizations.  Each character was written with fierce emotion, nothing was held back.  There was death, infidelity and such emotional loss within each character.