Bayou Bytes Blog

Courtesy of  nydailynews.com For a while, it seemed that the king of psychological horror books had stepped down.  Stephen King's books in the last decade have tended to be off-the-wall, weird, difficult to follow, and were just overall disjointed, badly written, and uninteresting.  Fans everywhere continued to buy the books and slouch through them, out of respect for his past works.  And then, in 2013,  Doctor Sleep  happened. With Doctor Sleep , we saw the return of the Stephen King we grew to love (amazing stories!) and hate (sleepless nights!).  While still reeling from the revelations, thrills, and horrors seen in Doctor Sleep , fans were then hit in June 2014 with King's first hard-boiled crime novel, Mr. Mercedes ; it was a success not only with King fans, but also with crime/mystery fans. It appears that King has finally moved on from his brush with death in 1999, when a distracted driver ran him over with a van.  The accident clearl...

Courtesy of bannedbookweek.org To Kill a Mockingbird. Captain Underpants. The Color Purple.  Green Eggs and Ham. Junie B. Jones. Catch-22.  Harry Potter.  The Giving Tree.  The Lord of the Rings.   All VERY different books, from different eras, with different audiences.  However, these books all have one thing glaringly in common: they are considered banned books. Reasons ranging from sexism, Marxism, racism, realistic portrayals of history, violence, sexual content, language, smoking, and bad decisions have all marred these books according to some people and those people want those books out of the public eye.  They have rallied, protested, held book burnings, and continue to petition to have these books removed from schools and libraries.  Why?  Because they are offended by the contents. This week marks the 32 year of celebrating banned books. Banned books span from children's books to adult books; they are referred to as "challeng...

Courtesy of junotdiaz.com Junot Diaz doesn't shy away from the heart wrenching.  He has written the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner about a multi-generational family curse (lots of dying); several short stories about a young man who just cannot stop cheating on women he loves (lots of thoughts about dying); and about people who try to ingratiate themselves in America for a better life (leaving behind lots of death in the Dominican Republic, just to face having to die in the American ghettos where they live).  Life and death go hand in hand in Diaz's stories, along with failure and success, and the desperate need to be better than one's parents, while maintaining their heritage. Diaz, who writes both short stories and novels, creates an unique central character: the Dominican Republic (DR).  The DR holds a strong place in Diaz's heart; he too immigrated to the US as a child and was raised in New Jersey.  Currently a creative writing professor at MIT, Diaz strives to ...

http://www.jaydardenne.com/passions/

Courtesy of goodreads.com Robert Galbraith achieved two things with his 2013 debut novel, The Cuckoo's Calling . 1) He wrote a mystery that was fresh with its approach to a flawed hero, the man who can't exactly get the girl, who doesn't make too many self-improvements, but somehow manages to come out on top. 2) He also was able to use his pen name to hide behind his real identity as Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and prove to the world that SHE could write books that didn't involve wands or Hogwarts. And prove it she did. The Cuckoo's Calling received spectacular reviews upon it's debut, while the world still thought that Galbraith was a new, male author; it was hailed as being darkly fascinating, with its mystery solving hero being a “a complex and compelling sleuth," according to Publisher's Weekly . Her sequel, The Silkworm , has received equally positive reviews, with Cormoran Strike proving once again that he can be the hero without being...

Courtesy of Goodreads.com Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is a non-fiction book by Laura Hillenbrand, published in 2010. It is going to be a movie directed by Angelina Jolie, to be released on Christmas 2014. It's an incredible book, spending 180 weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list. It is about a man who has done more and survived more than most of us could even dream of achieving. His life should make all of us aspire to be more.  The book is gripping, suspenseful, romantic, heroic, and inspiring; I read it in three days, calling into work sick so I could finish it. The movie is already generating Oscar Award buzz, even though it hasn't officially been released; the trailer alone made me cry. Why haven't you read it yet? I'm not sure . Louis Zamperini overcame QUITE a bit to become the very embodiment of the idea of a 'true' American. An small-town boy, who became a Hitler-dissing track star in the 1936 Olympics...