Book Review- Richard Hine's Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch

Richard Hine's novel Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch was on the Amazon monthly Kindle deals earlier this summer and I took a chance on it.

Protagonist, Russell Wiley is in his mid-thirties and his life is falling apart. He is stuck in a loveless marriage and his career, as an executive at a major newspaper, has an expiration date. Wiley is a desperate man surrounded by desperate people. His coworkers are ruthless, each trying to stay one-step ahead of lay-offs and Wiley must manage them, while trying to keep his own head off of the chopping block. He can't figure out how to fix his marriage and his home life has become unbearable. He is even beginning to question to strength of his bond with his childhood best friend. Wiley's entire life is on the brink of monumental change and this is the story of how everything plays out.

Immediately, the story grabbed me. Hine has a slick, modern writing style. It's catchy. I liked his main characters and enjoyed the office scheming. The story read like a more realistic, less comedic version of Office Space. It's relatable to anyone who has had to deal with office politics. The story would probably resonate very strongly with anyone who has been laid-off or who has dealt with a company about to go under. Luckily, I've not had either experience!

Unfortunately, the story failed to hold my interest. It gets a bit too bogged down in mundane details, especially those pertaining to the newspaper company. Sometimes it felt like reading a business manual. I felt like Hine must have worked in a similar environment to have written a novel filled with so many dull details.

The ending didn't fit with the tone of the overall story. Everything wrapped up quickly in a neat package that was somewhat surreal. The overall story needed to be a bit more wacky to fit with the ending. It felt tacked on and unnatural.

I often got the minor characters mixed up. There were too many characters in the office to keep track of them all. It would have read easier, if Hine had focused only on those most pertinent to the story, rather than trying to give info on so many different characters. This story should have been an easy read, but the details and onslaught of characters, made me work double-time to keep it all straight.

I finished the book within a few days, but was left feeling underwhelmed. Hine is a talented writer, but this story could have been a lot stronger.

UK August- October 2013- Hay-on-Wye

Several months ago, before we even began planning our recent UK trip, I saw a short segment on a travel show about the town of Hay-on-Wye. Hay-on-Wye is located in the Brecon Beacons National Park and is in Wales, sharing a close border with England. The town looked beautiful on the show, but what really caught my attention, is that Hay-on-Wye is referred to as "The Town of Books".

I love books!

LOVE THEM!

Clearly, this town was calling my name.

Dan was a good sport and planned our road trip so that we could have a night-stop in Hay-on-Wye, allowing me to live my dream of visiting a whole town devoted to reading.

Hay-on-Wye takes books very serious. Kindles are banned. I'm not sure if this is a real ban, but the anti-ereader sentiment is heavily enforced.

Another fun fact, in 1977 a local bookseller, Richard Booth, decided to declare Hay-on-Wye a Kingdom and make himself the king. The whole "Kingdom" bit stuck around. Hay-on-Wye is delightfully quirky.

My favorite bookshop with an anti-Kindle message goes to the Murder and Mayhem store.

Admittedly, I discreetly broke the ban by spending the afternoon reading on my Kindle in our hotel lounge. I was nearly done with Alissa Nutting's Tampa and just needed to know how it was going to end. I'm sure that Hay-on-Wye also has a ban on smut books, so my choice in "literature" was likely doubly insulting.

Bookstore are absolutely everywhere. One of favorites was located in a castle. Actually, the castle had more than one book store. I felt like there was a surprise around every corner.

The lower level of the castle has a covered outdoor book case with an honor system for payment.

We walked up stone steps to explore the ruins.

At the top, we peeked around a corner...

and found more books!!!!

We spent several hours walking around and exploring the bookstores. Unfortunately, I have a rather severe allergy to dust and mold, which prevents me from spending too much time in used bookstores and libraries. I know, it's crazy. What book lover avoids libraries? It killed me to not be able to spend more than a few minutes in each store. On the upside, I didn't buy a single book to add to my enormous to-be-read pile.

Some of the stores were really cool.

I took a bunch of pictures of non-book related things in the town. Hay-on-Wye has beautiful old churches and a war memorial statue.

After walking around the town, we went down a path to explore walking trails on the bank of the River Wye.

Hay-on-Wye is a beautiful small town with a ton of character. if you love books, this is a must-visit destination!

Book Review- Ashley Prentice Norton's The Chocolate Money

There are a lot of books about dysfunctional families, but Ashley Prentice Norton's The Chocolate Money, might just be the most dysfunctional of them all. Half of the time, I couldn't even believe what I was reading and yet, I was throughly hooked on the story.

The Chocolate Money is narrated by Bettina, the awkward daughter of Babs, an eccentric and abusive heiress of a chocolate company. The story follows Bettina from when she is a young child until she is in her mid-twenties. Bettina grows up in a luxury apartment in Chicago, where she is exposed to lavish parties and her mother's sexual exploits. Babs' idea of being a mother is limited to passing along adult information to Bettina at a young age, including how to please a man in bed. Babs treats Bettina like a ward that she cares for out of obligation and she doles out inappropriate advice when she is in a good mood. When she's in a bad mood, Babs lashes out at Bettina, inflicting both physical and mental wounds.

The cruelty and manipulation that Babs shows towards Bettina and in turn, Bettina uses as she grows up, is jaw-dropping. Norton has written such well developed characters that even though they go to extremes, it all remains plausible. Thankfully, there is no one in my life like these characters, but Norton writes them in a way that I believe such people can exist.

One of my favorite chapters detailed Babs' lavish theme party that she titled the "Hangover-Brunch Cruise". Babs thinks that cruises, hangovers and brunches are all inherently tacky, so she combines them into a party where the guests are to wear slutty cruise attire and come already hung-over. Babs even includes mini-liquor bottles with the invitation, which she makes Bettina hand-deliver while chauffeured by their limo driver around Chicago. It's completely outlandish, but also completely in line with the character. Norton nailed it.

Although more character driven, than plot driven, The Chocolate Money has a solid plot as Bettina attempts to find out who her father was and to find a male role model. The story has a good twist at the end, as various minor characters intersect and Babs' motives for the way she raised Bettina become more clear.

Norton's story is definitely not for everyone. It's brash, salacious and often shocking. I found it utterly compelling and impossible to put down.