Onyx Reviews 2022

BevVincent

1. Corrections in Ink: A Memoir by Keri Blakinger
2. Three-Edged Sword by Jeff Lindsay
   
3. Mr. Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll
4. Call Me a Cab by Donald E. Westlake
5. Heat 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner
6. The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
7. The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown by Lawrence Block
8. Hell and Back by Craig Johnson
9. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami
10. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
11. Swamp Story by Dave Barry
12. Desert Star by Michael Connelly

Hedda Gabler

Bev, can we comment on these here or do you prefer these type of threads stay clean? I’ll comment for now and you delete if need be. 

I love my Dave Barry and try to read his stuff eventually  but this one definitely jumps ahead on the reading pile due to your review. 

Hedda Gabler

Keri Blakinger has been on fire this last year. Her book is also one I want to get due to your review.  The book sounded interesting but not compelling enough to read until I’ve watched her navigate this last year. Being banned, trash talked, cock blocked — the more pushback she got, the more I realized how important her spotlight on what is going on is and how really bad, disgusting people want to silence her. 

The harder people try to discredit someone or something, the more interested I get.  Such brainiacs. When you try to hide stuff or alter the truth, the more determined I become. Just the opposite of what they want to accomplish. 

I’ll think for myself, thanks for drawing my attention to this book, dumbasses. Your flop sweat fear of truth got it on my radar and nice write-up Bev to seal the deal. 

Obviously she was from a good family and had every opportunity available. She made stupid choices. Because guess what? Brains aren’t fully formed until the age of twenty-five. Stupid kids.  But in her lucky and determined case, these bad choices led her to a higher purpose. Good for her. I admire her tenacity and ambition.

@GNTLGNT — being as you were in the system as staff, i’d be interested in your thoughts on her book. They are putting in a lot of effort to keep it from inmates in Texas (probably other places too.) That fact alone tells us it has a positive message and truth they want to suppress.  Expose the corruption. Name the hypocrites. Say THEIR names. Outloud. 

GNTLGNT

...I will look it up and go from there, thanks Deej for being interested in my thoughts....

Hedda Gabler

GNTLGNT said:

...I will look it up and go from there, thanks Deej for being interested in my thoughts....

I definitely would be interested. I have no idea about these issues she discusses. She would come from the problems she saw as an inmate. You could come from the problems as someone with inside knowledge. 

Hopefully you can see the wrongs that are ingrained in the system and speak to ways of solving them. 

I’ve always told you to write a book on your years as a prison nurse. Good, bad and ugly would be fascinating. 

BevVincent

Updated

Hedda Gabler

I’m fifty deep into Corrections in Ink. 

She’s doing a nice job so far laying the groundwork. The time jumps keep it interesting and keep it from feeling like a slog through an information dump. 

Hedda Gabler

Okay. Wow. I can’t believe how honest Keri B. is being. Quite brave. 

Hedda Gabler

@BevVincent

bev, is it important to have seen the movie Heat before reading Heat 2? Can the book be satisfying without having seen the movie? 

Hedda Gabler

And yes. I read your review.  It sounded twisty and that seeing the film was a good idea.  Yes?

BevVincent

I only watched the movie after I read Heat 2. They recap things quite effectively at the beginning of H2.