Rick Pryll's Blog: Books I have Read, page 3
November 7, 2017
Get FREE short stories now!
For a limited time I am offering two free short stories from my new novel, "The Chimera of Prague".
Download them here:
Not-Prom
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/6NljQ
The Ride
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/aoHsM
Tell your friends!
Download them here:
Not-Prom
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/6NljQ
The Ride
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/aoHsM
Tell your friends!
August 29, 2017
WALLOW on AUDIO?
Using ACX, I have reviewed more than 28 auditions, and I have chosen a voice. The narrator for WALLOW will be ... drum roll please ... Michael C. Williams of Blair Withc Prooject fame. Michael is busily recording the short stories, poems, journal excerpts and unsent letters as I type this. It will be available soon. Stay tuned for additional information on how to get the book on Audible.
March 26, 2017
5-star review for Lil' Choo Choo Johnson by Bryan Krull
Check it out:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found myself glued to the pages of this book. Then I turned to both Pandora and iTunes to hear the music that the author captures so well. I didn't want the story to end. The really wonderful thing about this book is the historical accuracy. A few days after I finished reading it for the first time, I caught a CNN special on the British Invasion that talked about how the Rolling Stones got their name (from a Muddy Waters song) and how they insisted on featuring Howlin' Wolf on their television debut. I half expected Lil Choo Choo Johnson to suddenly appear! Just thinking about the book makes me want to go back and read it again.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found myself glued to the pages of this book. Then I turned to both Pandora and iTunes to hear the music that the author captures so well. I didn't want the story to end. The really wonderful thing about this book is the historical accuracy. A few days after I finished reading it for the first time, I caught a CNN special on the British Invasion that talked about how the Rolling Stones got their name (from a Muddy Waters song) and how they insisted on featuring Howlin' Wolf on their television debut. I half expected Lil Choo Choo Johnson to suddenly appear! Just thinking about the book makes me want to go back and read it again.
View all my reviews
5-star review for The Light in the Sound by Vanessa Gonzales
Check it out:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rachel is going to have to choose. Is it going to be the long crushing Justin who doesn’t seem to have his shit together, the beautifully chaotic Cerise who definitely does not have her shit together, or the tall not-gay mechanic who just fixed her fan belt and is looking to fix a whole lot more?
The Light and the Sound is a literary fiction novel from Vanessa Gonzales. It is the story of Rachel Richardson, a twenty-something runaway trying to make a life out of it in Seattle, Washington. To make ends meet she has taken a job in a seedy sex shop in a strip mall. The best thing about the job is her proximity to Justin, who works at the adjacent photo lab. Not to mention the pay. And the shock factor, let’s not forget the shock factor for her religious father and step mother back in Utah.
Set against the backdrop of a city where rain is a season, The Light in the Sound captures the feeling of being twenty-something, searching for purpose and meaning and finding only the fascinating possibilities of what could be.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an escape into how it felt to be starting out in life. It has the appeal of being told from the point of view of a sarcastic, funny, smart character who is at once daring and circumspect, self-reliant yet dependent on her narcissistic friends. For anyone who feels stuck in a rut, this book has a voyeuristic quality that will take you out of your world and allow you to experience the freedom and the danger of youth: a time when life is full of possibilities.
In a topsy-turvy world caught between religious piety and raunchy sexploitation, maybe it is best to just take it all in. In time, you are going to have to make some choices for yourself. That’s what Rachel is going to have to do.
If you are looking for answers you will have to look forward to the sequel. I know I am.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rachel is going to have to choose. Is it going to be the long crushing Justin who doesn’t seem to have his shit together, the beautifully chaotic Cerise who definitely does not have her shit together, or the tall not-gay mechanic who just fixed her fan belt and is looking to fix a whole lot more?
The Light and the Sound is a literary fiction novel from Vanessa Gonzales. It is the story of Rachel Richardson, a twenty-something runaway trying to make a life out of it in Seattle, Washington. To make ends meet she has taken a job in a seedy sex shop in a strip mall. The best thing about the job is her proximity to Justin, who works at the adjacent photo lab. Not to mention the pay. And the shock factor, let’s not forget the shock factor for her religious father and step mother back in Utah.
Set against the backdrop of a city where rain is a season, The Light in the Sound captures the feeling of being twenty-something, searching for purpose and meaning and finding only the fascinating possibilities of what could be.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an escape into how it felt to be starting out in life. It has the appeal of being told from the point of view of a sarcastic, funny, smart character who is at once daring and circumspect, self-reliant yet dependent on her narcissistic friends. For anyone who feels stuck in a rut, this book has a voyeuristic quality that will take you out of your world and allow you to experience the freedom and the danger of youth: a time when life is full of possibilities.
In a topsy-turvy world caught between religious piety and raunchy sexploitation, maybe it is best to just take it all in. In time, you are going to have to make some choices for yourself. That’s what Rachel is going to have to do.
If you are looking for answers you will have to look forward to the sequel. I know I am.
View all my reviews
5-star review for Lithium Jesus by Charles Monroe-Kane
Check out my review here:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book digs beneath the surface of mental health into the mind of a young man who is suffering from auditory hallucinations and bipolar disorder. Tearing the cover off the clinical, the author speaks from the heart and attempts to capture the bedrock of his experience.
Lithium Jesus is a memoir by Charles Monroe-Kane describing his life from youth, when he first realizes that he is hearing voices, until he decides to leave Prague in his early thirties. A globe-hopping travelogue that takes the reader from rural Ohio, to Missouri, to the Philippines, to Hong Kong, to Haiti, to Indiana, to San Francisco, to a mental institution, to Alaska, to Costa Rica, to New York City, to Amsterdam, to Norway, to Ecotopia Bulgaria, to Peace Circus France, to Oregon, and finally to Bohemia.
The personal story lurches from one end of the spectrum to the other - from being taught to avoid being a sucker by his family, to becoming a full-time sucker proselytizing for the Evangelicals; from faith-healing, to the opposite extreme of Christianity with left-leaning Mennonites and the sanctuary movement, to atheism. From wearing suits and holding the Bible up like a sword to growing a beard, putting a ring in his ear and braiding his hair down his back declaring squatter’s rights in an abandoned building.
The voice is earnest, visceral, frank. The author is introspective, well-read, curious, smart, and above all aware.
A love-hate relationship with medication is central to the story. Does lithium suppress your genius? Is thorazine “a chemical lobotomy”? Off your meds, are you a danger to yourself and others? Does a patient have any choice in the matter?
The scenes are unforgettable. Pre-teen Guerillas for God whacking the tops off coconuts with machetes; waiting at the border with a huge solar generator while his leather pants get nicked; chasing a mischievous Swedish nymph through a forest naked; a rave in the foothills of the Tatra mountains with a MiG fighter jet as a DJ booth.
With disarming charm, Charles Monroe-Kane guides us through the epic arc of this tale, his testimony.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book digs beneath the surface of mental health into the mind of a young man who is suffering from auditory hallucinations and bipolar disorder. Tearing the cover off the clinical, the author speaks from the heart and attempts to capture the bedrock of his experience.
Lithium Jesus is a memoir by Charles Monroe-Kane describing his life from youth, when he first realizes that he is hearing voices, until he decides to leave Prague in his early thirties. A globe-hopping travelogue that takes the reader from rural Ohio, to Missouri, to the Philippines, to Hong Kong, to Haiti, to Indiana, to San Francisco, to a mental institution, to Alaska, to Costa Rica, to New York City, to Amsterdam, to Norway, to Ecotopia Bulgaria, to Peace Circus France, to Oregon, and finally to Bohemia.
The personal story lurches from one end of the spectrum to the other - from being taught to avoid being a sucker by his family, to becoming a full-time sucker proselytizing for the Evangelicals; from faith-healing, to the opposite extreme of Christianity with left-leaning Mennonites and the sanctuary movement, to atheism. From wearing suits and holding the Bible up like a sword to growing a beard, putting a ring in his ear and braiding his hair down his back declaring squatter’s rights in an abandoned building.
The voice is earnest, visceral, frank. The author is introspective, well-read, curious, smart, and above all aware.
A love-hate relationship with medication is central to the story. Does lithium suppress your genius? Is thorazine “a chemical lobotomy”? Off your meds, are you a danger to yourself and others? Does a patient have any choice in the matter?
The scenes are unforgettable. Pre-teen Guerillas for God whacking the tops off coconuts with machetes; waiting at the border with a huge solar generator while his leather pants get nicked; chasing a mischievous Swedish nymph through a forest naked; a rave in the foothills of the Tatra mountains with a MiG fighter jet as a DJ booth.
With disarming charm, Charles Monroe-Kane guides us through the epic arc of this tale, his testimony.
View all my reviews
5-star review for Carolina Spirit by Bibiana Krall
Check it out here:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you grew up in South Carolina, or if you wish you did, put this book on your must-read list. You will smell the salt marsh, you will feel the sand between your toes, you will recognize the clay on your shoes, and you will recall what it is like to be back, enjoying a family picnic on the sand in a National Wildlife refuge, or spending a sizzling hot summer day at a farmer’s market.
Gracie is a vivid young woman who has lost her father to a nefarious act, and she is not about to let anyone get away with it. Her mother attempts to cope with loss and debilitating grief, and Gracie wishes someone would care that she has not brushed her teeth and that she has not washed her feet before climbing into bed. It is heart-breaking; as I read this book, more than once I took a break to go and hug my kids.
Written in the first person, the voice is strong and clear. You immediately get a sense of this young woman, and the small town she calls home. Indeed, the inhabitants of this town are all too familiar – you probably went to school with people just like these: the jock who inspired expectations that he could never live up to, especially after his father falls ill; the ne’er-do-well twins who pollute the town with their antics, both literally and figuratively; the rich and getting richer sinister mother’s ex-boyfriend, who it seems had the wool pulled over her eyes; the over-achieving do-gooder. If you grew up in a small town, it is a safe bet that you will recognize these archetypes, all dutifully living out their fates.
What’s more, Gracie is haunted. She has tuned into another wavelength that most people will never have the ability to experience, and it is beginning to scare her best friend and partner in crime, Gus.
The book has a surprising conclusion that ties up all the loose ends. I found myself wiping away a few tears, glad to have had a chance to get to know Gracie and Gus. Maybe we’ll meet up again in the sequel?
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you grew up in South Carolina, or if you wish you did, put this book on your must-read list. You will smell the salt marsh, you will feel the sand between your toes, you will recognize the clay on your shoes, and you will recall what it is like to be back, enjoying a family picnic on the sand in a National Wildlife refuge, or spending a sizzling hot summer day at a farmer’s market.
Gracie is a vivid young woman who has lost her father to a nefarious act, and she is not about to let anyone get away with it. Her mother attempts to cope with loss and debilitating grief, and Gracie wishes someone would care that she has not brushed her teeth and that she has not washed her feet before climbing into bed. It is heart-breaking; as I read this book, more than once I took a break to go and hug my kids.
Written in the first person, the voice is strong and clear. You immediately get a sense of this young woman, and the small town she calls home. Indeed, the inhabitants of this town are all too familiar – you probably went to school with people just like these: the jock who inspired expectations that he could never live up to, especially after his father falls ill; the ne’er-do-well twins who pollute the town with their antics, both literally and figuratively; the rich and getting richer sinister mother’s ex-boyfriend, who it seems had the wool pulled over her eyes; the over-achieving do-gooder. If you grew up in a small town, it is a safe bet that you will recognize these archetypes, all dutifully living out their fates.
What’s more, Gracie is haunted. She has tuned into another wavelength that most people will never have the ability to experience, and it is beginning to scare her best friend and partner in crime, Gus.
The book has a surprising conclusion that ties up all the loose ends. I found myself wiping away a few tears, glad to have had a chance to get to know Gracie and Gus. Maybe we’ll meet up again in the sequel?
View all my reviews
March 24, 2017
Welcome to my Reading Blog
I always wanted one of these. Thanks to the good people at Goodreads I now have one. I used to keep track of every book I ever read, but I lost track somewhere along the way. I vow to attempt to collect here, all the books I have ever read. Enjoy!
Books I have Read
I started obsessively tracking all the books I have read when I was just out of college. Over the years I have been less obsessive about it - but let's change all that. I have converted my lists to Go
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- Rick Pryll's profile
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