Trafficked Girl, Zoe Patterson

   I don't know what I was expecting when I picked up this book. You can buy it on Amazon.com. The book is not very professional. It reads like an amateur wrote it. Maybe someone reading what I just wrote might jump to the conclusion that I'm putting it down or degrading it somehow. Maybe in most cases if I said the same words that would an accurate assessment. But this is the exception to the rule. The somewhat disorganized method of narration of inter-lapping flashbacks gives it an authentic weight that would be absent in a more professionally polished narration.
   I had no problem with reading this book. I never thought at any point that it was boring or had any significant problems with grammar or spelling which often goes hand-in-hand with amateurish books.
   This is the true story of a horribly abused girl. Sexually abused by her grandfather. Beaten, mentally abused, isolated from her family by her mother, she tries to escape. But when social services finally decides to act on her behalf, they make her life much worse.
   Zoe is put into a group home where she is targeted by two young women in their teens for sexual exploitation. They bully and force her into selling her body to men for sex. She never consents to any of this. Nor does she receive money for any of it. Alcohol becomes her escape.
   As she gets older, she is given welfare support, but she has no idea how to take care of herself. Instead of using her welfare payments for things like heating and other necessities, she uses all of it to buy alcohol.
   Eventually there is a light at the end of this tunnel. She makes a good friend who becomes her first true friend. She finds an attorney who helps Zoe get compensation for their terrible negligence. The book ends in an optimistic note. Maybe she'll live happily ever after. But of course that's not really how life works.
   My sister and I both went through the foster care system. It's safer to say that my sister's experience is closer to that of Zoe's than my own. When I was very young, I also asked adults for help to escape from my mother. An aunt who told me about it said that I screamed and cried after I had stayed with her for awhile, at the point when she tried to give me back. I would have been five. My mother exposed us to sexual and physical abuse. She and my older sister both subjected me to sexual abuse and bondage. My sister was exploited by my mother's frequently changed boyfriends. My mother was hooked on hard drugs.
  I had been told by my mother all the bad things about foster care. So, when all those bad things she talked about happened to me, I figured that they were normal. I only once had some sexual issues. But there was some violence. I was exploited for hard and heavy farm labor and never compensated for my time. So, I do have a personal inkling as to how awful government care can be. But in no way am I trying to say that that was as bad as being raped all the time.
   I do know what it's like to be constantly told that I cannot do anything with my life. Well, piss on all those people. I got my degree. Now I teach English at a middle sized university. What are those people doing? Some of them are probably dead. Others are probably still stuck in their trailers. Now who's laughing?

Bearers of the Black Staff, Terry Brooks

   When I was much much younger, I ate up Terry Brooks books like they were on fire. I devoured them. They were among my favorites. I read The Sword of Shannara years before I got around to reading The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit in my late teens. I probably read everything he wrote up to a certain date at around that time. Then, when everything had been read, I stopped paying attention to what he was publishing. Bearers of the Black Staff is the first book of his that I've read since that period in my life.
   What can I say? What expectations did I have when I picked it up. I know myself well enough that I did not have great expectations. My tastes have changed a lot. I did not want to have great expectations and then be let down.
  I will say that the book was good. Not very good. Maybe even closer to OK than good. The story is set 500 years after a series I haven't read, and is supposed to take place before The Sword of Shannara. I got this from reading reviews.
  The story is post apocalyptic. Mankind has had its big war. Everything was destroyed in the big war. There is nothing left except for a massive wasteland and a sheltered valley protected by a magical barrier. That magical barrier's best before date has expired. People can now leave the valley. More importantly, a large troll army can invade the valley. The people within the valley have their petty conflicts and cannot focus on protecting their own interests. Even worse, there are powerful-ish leaders of the Hawk religion who are actively inhibiting their ability to respond to the existential threat.
   It took me awhile to get into the book. I liked it well enough, but I don't feel motivated enough to pick up the next book in the series. Brooks is legendary, and I have tons of respect for him. But I think the days of fantasy novel reading obsession are behind me.

The Reckoning, John Grisham

  The Reckoning, was on the NYT best sellers' list. I decided to give it a go. A Google Books review reads, "#1 bestselling author John Grisham's The Reckoning is his most powerful, surprising, and suspenseful thriller yet." If this is his most powerful, most surprising and suspenseful thriller yet, then this may very well be the last of anything he wrote I will ever read. It's fine. He's rich. He doesn't need my stamp of approval. I did not read the entire book. Life is too short. There are too many other books that I want to read. I made it to the end of part one. I felt a great deal of closure when the main character was executed and I decided to leave it at that. There were a number of reasons for that.
So, John Grisham is an extremely successful author. His book,
   I thought that this book was dull. It did give me a look into the world of privilege. He built up the main character, Pete Banning, only to have him executed for the crime of murdering a pastor. Pete Banning was a war hero and a fairly wealthy farmer. He had slaves who loved him. By the end of part one of the novel, it's made evident that in all likelihood, he got revenge for something the pastor had done to his wife: maybe a rape or something along those lines.
   In this day and age of Trump, where everyone feels emboldened to be openly racist, I did not really like the tones used for black people. I didn't really like the throwback language. It's one thing to use these kinds of terms in times when people didn't know any better. But this is 2019. Grisham should know better. What kind of man is he? It almost strikes me as he might have been the kind of guy to say, 'Hey, some black people liked being slaves,' or something to that effect. That was a huge turn off for me. If that's not what he meant to do, he should have been a lot more careful.
   I definitely feel like I wasted time reading this book. Folks in Bookaholics mentioned that I ought not to judge Grisham by this one book of his and that they didn't care for it. Well, maybe one day. But I have so many hundreds of other books to read before I crack open another of his.