My stack of books to be read is slowly decreasing. The latest book I read, The Catalain Book of Secrets was a book I picked up during my bookstore hunt in Minneapolis over spring break. I saw this book on a shelf and I was entranced. The cover is absolutely beautiful. The purple and blue colors are really pretty and the mansion itself is a huge part of this novel.

This novel takes place in Faith Falls, Minnesota. Catalain is a well-known family in Faith Falls particularly because they are capable of performing magic. Each family member has a unique gift with magical abilities. Ursula has the ability to make incredible potions. Her two daughters: Katrine and Jasmine also have unique abilities. Throughout the novel, there is a Catalain family curse. It starts with Ursula and it’s detailed in the first chapter. This family curse threatens to take away the Catalain magic and the happiness of the women in the family.

I really enjoyed Jessica Lourey’s writing style. Her writing has a lot of imagery and it’s easy to imagine the fictional small town. Since I’m from Minnesota, it’s nice to read a book that captures Minnesota’s beauty.

I really loved the Catalain women. This book has very strong female characters in it. It also shows that each of the characters has had their hardships and how they handled them.

Normally, this isn’t a book I would choose for myself to read. I really enjoyed it! The characters are great, the setting of the story is told really well and I really enjoyed the writing of the story. I recommend this especially if you live in the Minnesota area.

Summer is one of my favorite seasons because it allows me more time to read. I probably spent at least three hours reading yesterday to finish this book. L.A. Confidential is a book I picked up when I went bookstore hunting in Minneapolis. I finally got around to reading it. Unfortunately, this book was really disappointing. This is one instance where the movie is ten times better than the book.

L.A. Confidential takes place in the 1950s. The story revolves around police officers in the Los Angeles district. Ellroy introduces way too many characters to keep track of. However, the three main characters worth noting are Bud White, Jack Vincennes, and Edmund Exley. The three characters are all police officers in various districts within the police department. Bud White is working homicide and he purposefully goes after men who beat women. He goes against the rules and beats criminals who he feels deserve it. Jack Vincennes was working under narcotics and then gets transferred to Ad Vice which deals with pornography-type crimes. Finally, Edmund Exley is the “goody-two-shoes” cop. He follows every single protocol. He is essentially the opposite of Bud White. The novel revolves around the mystery of the “The Nite Owl” homicide. In 1953, various people were murdered at this nite owl coffee shop.

The problem with these characters is that I honestly dislike all of them. Bud White is violent and very sexist and disgusting towards women. He sees them as objects and calls women whores all the time. Now, that may just be the time period in which the novel takes place, but still, I really dislike Bud White as a character. Jack Vincennes is just a fame-hungry police officer. Edmund Exley is the good guy cop who only cares about making his way up in the police force. None of these characters are characters I appreciate.

The story itself is rather confusing. Ellroy introduces all of these different police officers and criminals and it’s really hard to keep track. If I would have known that before starting the book, I would have written down every single character and why they are related to the story.

Another problem I had with this book is how slow it was. My favorite part of the movie is when Exley and White team up to solve the crime and end the corruption in the police department. That doesn’t happen until the last 50 pages or so. All this build-up wasn’t even worth it because when everything was revealed about the nite owl, it took a while for me to fully understand what was going on.

I could probably keep going about how much I disliked this novel. If you love the 50’s time period, police corruption, and gangster activity, watch the movie. The movie is fantastic and it does a great job at keeping things interesting.

The latest book that I finished is based on one of my all-time favorite video games. This book, Bioshock: Rapture, is a prequel novel based on the video game. Before I really talk about the plot of this book or go into my review, I’m going to talk a little about the video game because that will provide some insight into the book.

Bioshock takes place in 1960. The protagonist in the game is named Jack. After his plane crashes in the Atlantic, he finds shelter in a lighthouse. Upon entering the lighthouse, he discovers that it’s a secret entrance to Rapture. Rapture is an underwater city created by Andrew Ryan. When Jack discovers the city, he finds that the city has deteriorated. Atlas, a man in Rapture becomes Jack’s guide as he explains what has happened to the city. One cause of the city’s destruction is plasmids. Plasmids are chemicals that you inject that give you powers such as shooting electricity, throwing fireballs, and telekinesis. These plasmids are really what caused Rapture’s downfall. Over the course of the game, you meet characters and discover what really happened to this broken city.

This book starts before Rapture was created. Major characters in this novel include:

Andrew Ryan: Ryan is the creator of Rapture. He creates Rapture because he believes that the world will die at the hands of a nuclear holocaust.

Bill McDonagh: McDonagh is a British engineer and he is recruited by Andrew Ryan to help create the city and protect it.

Frank Fontaine: Fontaine is a criminal who sneaks his way into Rapture. He is the main antagonist in the story along with Andrew Ryan. Ryan and Fontaine are constantly fighting over the right to rule Rapture and this causes conflict within the novel and impacts the city.

Brigid Tenenbaum: Tenenbaum is a geneticist. She helped create the plasmids and the ADAM responsible for the destruction of Rapture. She was also a scientific assistant in the concentration camps in Germany in World War II.

As a huge fan of video games, I knew I had to read the book. The book itself starts off slow. It introduces key characters and it takes a long time before Rapture is built. Once Rapture is built, the book starts to get interesting. More characters in the video game are introduced and slowly Rapture is starting to deteriorate. I really liked how most of the characters were portrayed. Andrew Ryan seems like a good person at first, but he refuses to let anyone leave Rapture and this causes most of the citizens in Rapture to start revolting. As violence increases in the city, Ryan refuses to address the issue. I consider Ryan to be a dictator and as much as he preaches free speech in the city, he refuses to listen to people who don’t agree with him. I also really like Bill McDonagh. He is an interesting character because he knows that Rapture is slowly going downhill, but he respects Andrew Ryan. This internal conflict is shown throughout the story and I found it really fascinating to read about.

My Goodreads rating is three stars. I liked that this book gave new insight into the world of Rapture, however, I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the video game, but if you’re not interested in Bioshock, you wouldn’t find this book interesting.