It’s been a really busy summer, what with a new book in the works and another pinball restoration, but I’ve had time to squeeze in a few books. Here are the most recent five:

BOOK REVIEW: Here’s an example of when reading reviews turns out badly: I had been hearing so many good things about A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay that I had to try it. Not only did I buy that book, but I bought his most recent one, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. I’m always in the mood for a story with a supernatural twist, so I figured his books would be right up my alley. Ghosts is about a family with a daughter who may be possessed by spirits, or may be just plain nuts. Think The Exorcist for the reality-TV crowd. But the problem is that I wasn’t connected to the characters, and the reality TV sections were so annoying that I had to skim through them. There was a huge twist at the end that I enjoyed, but it was a chore getting there and I wound up putting his new book on the “For Sale” pile. Two Stars.

BOOK REVIEW: Do you love Seinfeld? If so, then Seinfeldia by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the book for you. It follows the development of the show, from conception to completion and the years since. You’ll find yourself laughing at the descriptions of scenes you know so well, and the stories about internal struggles behind the scenes are fascinating. Some chapters felt like padding: the chapters about superfans, for instance, and I found myself not caring as much once the book turned its focus to the years after the show. But all in all, and really entertaining read. Four Stars.

BOOK REVIEW: I loved the premise of All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. Two girls go missing, decades apart, and a woman who knows both of them returns to her hometown to try to figure it all out. The kicker? The story is told in reverse. I found the first half of the book to be confusing, though, and had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t reading the next day with the start of a new chapter, I was reading the day before. The reasons for the reverse chronology don’t become apparent until the second half of the book, but when it’s used to great effect, it’s stunning. The problem was that too much of the book felt like a slog. A great beach read, though. Three Stars.

BOOK REVIEW: A new book by Joseph Finder is always an event for me, so I write this review with a bit of bias. Guilty Minds is another book with his returning hero, Nick Heller, investigating claims of a chief justice of the Supreme Court having relations with an escort. Of course, bodies turn up, and the plot rockets along. But while many love the Nick Heller books, they’ve never been my favorite, and I’ve just figured out why. Heller is Finder’s take on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. He’s a tough guy that seems to be part James Bond and capable of doing anything. That’s great, but I prefer his books like Paranoia where you have an everyman-style character who finds himself in an extraordinary situation. But that’s just me. A great read nonetheless. Four Stars.

BOOK REVIEW: Dark Matter is the new book by Blake Crouch, better known for having penned the Wayward Pines trilogy, the basis for the new TV show. This is a sci-fi thriller that deals in alternate realities, and if you had stopped me halfway through the book, it would be getting five stars and I’d be calling it one of the best reads of the year. But there’s a point where the two main characters keep injecting themselves with a chemical and walking through doors into so many separate realities that the effect wears off and you just wish he’d get on with the story. The entire middle section seems like it was written to achieve a word count. Knock out that section, and it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read, period. But with it, it’s only worthy of Four Stars.