A Feast for Crows (A Song of Fire and Ice #4) by George R. R. Martin

A Feast for Crows (Song of Fire and Ice #4) has the unfortunate task of trying to follow Book #4 of the Gamer of Thrones series, which was monumental.  For me, A Feast for Crows fell short.  The direction of the story was odd, and the choice of characters who the story is progressed through their tales was not the greatest, but I guess George R.R. Martin did not have too much of a choice because he slimmed his character pool quite extensively, but even those who are still around did not really make an appearance. Also, so many of the other characters were killed in this book just my mere mention that they died in once sentence as an update from someone else.  At first I was thinking to myself that this book was just alright, but then at the end when I thought back and asked myself what really happened that advanced the story I could not really come up with anything.  All those pages and nothing of importance; that kinda annoyed me, but if I want to continue reading the series I guess I had to read this one, although if I skipped it I would not really have missed anything.

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

In general I try not to judge a book by its movie, but in this case the sole reason why I read the book was for my love of the movie.  That being said, this book did not entertain nearly as much as the movie, was not as emotionally charged, and the main character left a lot to be desired. Thanks, but no Hanks.

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

To be perfectly honest if this book was not the last of the series I likely would have not bothered finishing it and I would have abandoned the series. It is slow and not very entertaining, and it just takes the already established characters and just draws out their lives to wrap things up.  This book is really only worth reading if you want to close the lid on the series that started off amazing with Wicked, and then gradually tapered off towards mediocrity.

Zadig by Voltaire

At least to me, it seems like this story was crafted more to insert the social commentary aspect, and clever riddles at the expense of a comprehensive plot. Nothing of substance really happens to Zadig other than him offer his opinion on everything.

The Quickie by James Patterson

Not the best Patterson book, but still enjoyable. The story seemed more like a severe warning for anyone who thought about cheating on their spouse (perhaps there are some personal issues Patterson was addressing?). Much of the story seemed too straight forward and as the reader you could figure out what was going to happen next simply by asking yourself...hmmm, what is the worst thing that could possibly happen right now? Even the main character (although not too far off from the standard Patterson lead) was not too likable. I found myself not wanting to back her at all; in fact I kinda wanted her to get what was coming to her. The best part about this book was that it was not too long, so I did not have to invest too much time to get through it. I would recommend this to a Patterson fan who has perhaps run out of his better stories to read.