Ron Tanner

For starters, I like dystopian novels so much better than utopian novels. I lucked into this one as a free Kindle download, which I read almost entirely on my phone (I just got a Kindle last week and read part of it on there, but finished it on my phone). This was a great novel for the infrequent reading I do on my phone - mainly while I'm waiting and only when I've forgotten to bring the book I'm reading. With other books I've tried to read that way, I've found that I forget the characters or the plot, and that wasn't the case this time. This story is memorable. I loved the illustrations and the characters. The story mainly concerns a mother and her large family of children, who are funny in the way children who are not watched over constantly can be, going a little astray, but nothing disastrous. In the war-torn setting of this novel, there is much danger, but many of the societal norms are gone, so in some ways it seems like an easier world to live in.… (mais)

I have next to no interest in historical preservation and yet I felt compelled to read this entire book. This a memoir, so of course the entire book is not about reapplying plaster or finding a comtempoary door knob. The author meets a woman and falls in love and one of the primary reasons he decides to restore this monster, three-story Queen Anne house, is to cement their relationship. The author is certainly a patient man; some of the stuff his girlfriend pulls during the restoration would make most people pretty angry. Prior to them restoring the house, it had been a frat house. The frat had nearly destoryed the house and literally left sh*t all over the place. The fact that they were able to restore the house with the difficulites they had and not murder each other is testament to their love for each other. Kudos to Mr. Tanner for restoring his house with little money, no experience, and turning the process into an enjoyable memoir.… (mais)