Book Review: "The Short Forever" by Stuart Woods

The Short Forever, is a mystery about an ex cop turned attorney (and investigator), who had a bit of an adventure in England.

The summary states: " The unflappable Stone Barrington comes face to face with two men whose lives are wrapped in shadows and lies-and who both still feel the sting of betrayal they can never forget."

"Hired by an odd client previously unknown to him, Stone arrives in London on a mission he thinks he understands, but doesn't. Soon he finds himself not only out of his territory, but out of depth as well. Stone is baffled by the behavior of both his quarry and his client, and his life is further complicated by two, possibly three murders and the affectionate attentions of two former lovers. When the intelligence services of several countries become involved, he can only hang on for a wild ride and hope for a not-too-bumpy landing."-The Short Forever-

Review: This book was good! I was actually surprised I liked it as much as I did, since I am not used to reading about older characters (they're around their 30's and 40's+). This story had so many twists and shocks in it, there were times where I had to pause and think What!

I have mixed feelings on the characters. I do like the protagonist, and I know characters have their faults and flaws to make them more real and relatable. But, there is just something I didn't like about the female characters. Honestly, I didn't like them at all. I had similar feelings about Stone as well at times. It is most likely due to a clash of values. Maybe even because the author is male (when it came to the women).

I really liked the writing style of the author. It was more simplistic, and not sugary or poetic when it came to the descriptions. I really appreciated that, and I learned a good bit of vocabulary words as well!

All in all, I would recommend this book if you are a fan of mysteries and detectives. It kept me shocked up until the very end.

Rating: 4/5

Note: This is book 8, but can be read alone. I didn't even know it was a part of a series at first.

Lisa

Trip to NY

Hi everyone! Today I'll be showing and telling about part two of my winter break trip.

During this part of the trip, I stayed in a hotel in New Jersey, and everyday we would travel over to Manhattan. I had a great time during this trip, and everything was just so big. The Macy's was 9 floors including the basement! There was also a Ferris wheel inside of the Toy's R Us. This was the busiest and most crowded place I had ever been.

The first night, my new friends and I got scammed into taking pictures with the people wearing costumes in the middle of the city (Iron-man). It also rained like crazy and was wet everywhere, but I still had a good time. One of the things that was hard to miss was the traffic and air. The pollution was so thick that it was hard to breath the first night, and I honestly couldn't understand how the people could stand it. Along with that, traffic was so insane! The pedestrians even more so. No one waited for the crosswalk lights, they just walked into super busy streets!

The city was great, but could boring at times, so it was a nice adventure to visit Ellis Island. I hadn't been there since I was like ten, and again everything was so different then what I remembered. We took a tour around the island and went into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. This was our final day in NY, and it was my favorite. Oh! we also visited museums there as well (we latched onto a terribly boring tour at one point though).

Some stores visited were: Macy's, H&M, Toy's R US, Build a Bear Workshop-where I got my bunzy!, and a few more I'm sure.

Me! I didn't realize it wasn't rotated, and got to lazy to do it when I found out. hahaha

My two new friends and roomies

Me again!

And again...

Lisa

p.s. I feel like posting this is out of place after the church massacre in South Carolina. These times are so crazy, and its sometimes hard to know what to pray for. But, once you ask to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, he can fill the gap for us. (Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us in wordless groans.)

Trip to DC with pictures and a short clip

Over Winter Break, yes a few months ago when I didn't have a blog :/, I decided to go on a trip to DC, and then to NY. The opportunity was provided by my University, and ever since I knew about it, I wanted to go. I was finally able to afford it, so I figured why not.

DC was definitely an experience, and I saw the good and bad of it. I had been before since I used to live in Maryland, but I don't think I ever experienced it like this before. The perspective of children and adults are always so different (I visited as a little girl). The first thing I noticed however, was that this place was beautiful. It was like being in a completely different country. Like some awesome place in Europe (maybe Greece).

I loved my time there at first, but by the end of the second day, I was completely over it. The thing is, I had never seen so many homeless people before in life. I wondered how this supposedly great city could have so many people lying in the dirt at night. I didn't know what to do, or how to react to them, but everyone around me just seemed to ignore them easily. The experience that struck me the most was when this women came up to me asking for help, and I had no idea what to do at the time. I had never felt so useless. This city started to sadden me greatly, so by then I was glad that we were leaving the next day.

I do have great memories as well, and I did have a good time. There were so many things to do, and some were even free, like the museums. As a whole, I did enjoy my time in DC. I just can't ignore the negative aspects of it as well.

Taken by Lisa Ajala

Made out of Aluminum foil!

The Hope Diamond

In the Spy Museum, which was a lot of fun.

Hope you enjoyed!

Lisa