Nicholas McCane

I wanted so bad to like this book. I am a real life Black Detective who has spent the last 15 years assigned to the Crimes against Children's unit. I was immediately sold on this book when I found out that Alex Cross was also black. I'm thinking, finally I can read a book with a detective that looks like me. But no, it was immediately obvious that the writer was white. The story is supposed to have taken place in the 90s.

It was like the author kept trying to remind us that Cross is black. The dialogue between black people was horrible. At one point there was dialogue involving a young black teen. The author tried to use ebonics. It was so bad that I didn't even understand what she was saying and I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. At one point Cross referred to himself as the n-word (with the ER) to a black woman. We don't talk like that James Patterson. You could've at least used the a at the end.

Someone also called Cross's girlfriend/killer a n-word lover. It's the 90s James, not the 60s.

Then there was the cross burned in the yard by the KKK

This is my book club’s second book. Our first book was the Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose. I had seen mixed reviews so I was kind of nervous that this book wouldn’t be as good as our first.

The Silent Patient started out extremely slow and boring. The first four chapters were blah, I found myself rereading paragraphs. But then the book picked up and got better and better. This ended up being a great read with a satisfying ending. I’m giving it four and a half stars!

Social media was raving over this book so I had to check it out. This book is about finding your “Personal Legend”. Your mission on earth. It's about a boy named Santiago who is a shepherd. He goes on a journey to find his personal legend. It was slow paced but still a gem. I love the message of the book. I'll leave you with two quotes from the book.

1: “If a person is living out his personal legend, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure”.

2. “And anyone who interferes with the Personal Legend of another thing never will discover his own”.

I love the ending. The only reason why I didn't give it five stars is because it was too slow. I kept falling asleep and having to reread paragraphs.

This book was outstanding. The first page will grab you and never let go. I learned so much about her childhood as well as once she became an adult. I also felt like I had front row seats inside both the Black Liberation Army and The Black Panther Party. American Schools will only teach us about Rosa Parks and MLK. It’s up to us to teach ourselves about the hundreds (possibly thousands) of other heroes that the government keeps from us. Next up for me is An Autobiography by Angela Davis and Black Prophet by Nat Turner. Did you know that she is Tupac’s Godmother 🤯

The Poppy War was my first fantasy book. Unfortunately it starts off extremely slow. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great as far as world and character building, but still really slow. The book lacked action. I waited and waited. Somewhere near the 200th page it picked up, but quickly slowed back down. I still enjoyed it but to be honest, it was kind of a let down. I buddy read it and my buddy DNF. Since I’m invested, I will be completing the series. Maybe the other two books are full of action. I’m giving it four stars for the world building, some of the fighting scenes, and the graphic depictions of what war looks like. Those parts were really satisfying 🤷🏾‍♂️