Carlos went to leave the apartment, but stopped for a second, turning to where Billy Joe held his son tightly to him, fear in his eyes. It sent a chill up Carlos’s back as he wondered about the source of it. He knew that fear, and the loneliness and mistrust that accompanied it. He’d lived that himself.

This all feels darker than I'm used to for an Andrew Grey story...

This was a really good true crime book, the main reason why I didn't give it five stars is that there was too much filler in here for me towards the end. A good 20 percent of this book could have deleted (after we get into the 1990s) since we all should know at this point that Ridgway (the Green River Killer) didn't get arrested until 2001 and was not convicted until 2003. Depending on the book I don't mind when Rule segues into the lives of the police officers who are responsible for apprehending these killers, this time though there was a lot of repetitiveness that ended up boring me to tears. 

"Green River, Running Red" is a look at the Green River Killer who murdered 71 women in Washington State in the 1980s and 1990s. Rule gives us an intimate look at these women and in some cases teens. We find out what drove many of them to the streets and how they got involved with prostitution. I find it appalling how little people seemed to care that prostitutes were being murdered. Ridgway purposely chose women in this profession since besides hating them, he thought no one would notice them going missing and if they did, would not care. Rule manages to have you feel nothing but sympathy for these women and their family who would not know for years or decades in some cases about what happened to their daughters/mothers/sisters. I loved that Rule added in pictures before she got into the history of each woman. I also found myself hoping for a different outcome once I got caught up in all of their lives. 

Rule smartly does not make Ridgway the focus of this book. Every couple of chapters or so we peek back in at Ridgway to see where he is in his life, but he is depicted as a malevolent ghost for most of the story before Rule goes into how he was finally apprehended. 

I do think in this case going into the Green River Task Force could have been cut way down in this final book. They really didn't find anything to go on with Ridgway for a long time, so reading about other suspects wasn't interesting. I also thought Rule carried the water for the police a bit too much in this book. She also weirdly takes potshots at Robert Keppel who enlisted Ted Bundy who provided some insights into the Green River Killer before his death. Keppel even wrote a book about it entitled "The Riverman". 

The ending of the book goes into Ridgway going out with law enforcement and finding the locations of other victims and him recounting how he murdered them.

Solid read for teens. Very smalltown America, not glam or supernatural or anything, just normal. Interesting how unusual that setting is; even the references to going to church or praying and stuff seem average in a way very few YA titles capture these days (not Christian Fic as far as I can tell; just part of the worldbuilding.) Flips between the perspectives of a dating couple: the boy's from a larger, poor family who lost a son recently; the girl's from a dysfunctional wealthier family and is developing an eating disorder. It was interesting how the motivations and progression of the disease developed slowly and how it impacted everyone's relationships. Kind of a tough read, with maybe some trigger warning-worthy stuff around the parent-child relationship and eating disorder. But nothing too explicit; should be okay for younger teens.

Czy są wśród Was fani snookera? Jeśli tak, a nie czytaliście jeszcze książki, którą chcę dzisiaj polecić to koniecznie nadróbcie tę zaległość.

„Running. Autobiografia mistrza snookera” to opowieść - pięciokrotnego mistrza świata w snookerze oraz zdobywcy licznych trofeów i laurów w tej dyscyplinie - Ronniego O’Sullivana  o jego życiu, które od dzieciństwa nie należało do łatwych.

Ronnie wraz z Simonem Hattenstone’m dziennikarzem „The Guardian” odsłaniają przed czytelnikami kulisy dzieciństwa, młodości oraz życia prywatnego i sportowego znanego praktycznie na całym świecie snookerzysty.
42-letni dziś sportowiec do bólu szczerze, a jednocześnie bez wytwarzania atmosfery zbędnej sensacji opowiada o swoich zmaganiach z nadużywaniem alkoholu i narkotyków. Pisze o problemach w domu rodzinnym, heroicznej walce o dzieci oraz o swojej drugiej pasji, jaką jest bieganie.

W książce dokładnie tak, jak ma to miejsce w życiu Ronnie’go radość miesza się ze smutkiem, euforia z depresją, wiara w siebie z wewnętrznym poczuciem przegranej z własnymi słabościami.
„Running…” jest napisaną przystępnym językiem, maksymalnie szczerą i nieubarwianą historią człowieka z jednej strony zmagającego się z ogromnymi problemami różnorakiej natury, z drugiej natomiast posiadającego niesamowity talent do gry w snookera.

Dzięki różnym opowieściom Ronnie’go mamy szansę zajrzeć niejako za kulisty wielu prestiżowych snookerowych rozgrywek. O’Sullivan nie szczędzi czytelnikom również wielu zabawnych anegdot, które wydarzyły się poza czujnym okiem telewizyjnych kamer.

Jest to jednak książka nie tylko o snookerze, traktuje ona o pasji – nie tylko do wbijania bil, lecz także do biegania - pomagającej wybrnąć mu z wielu kłopotów, a niekiedy wręcz utrzymującej Ronnie’go mówiąc kolokwialnie „na powierzchni”. Dużo miejsca poświecono też miłości ojcowskiej O’Sullivana do swoich dzieci oraz temu jak ważna jest i zawsze była w jego życiu rodzina i przyjaciele.

Czytając „Running…” przekonujemy się, że życie znanych i bogatych wcale nie jest usłane różami, a bywa wręcz przeciwnie, z czego siedząc przed szklanym ekranem i podziwiając naszego idola często nie zdajemy sobie sprawy.

Książkę czyta się dobrze, chociaż miejscami bywa ona nieco chaotyczna. Fakt ten czyni ją jednak w moich oczach jeszcze bardziej autentyczną i opartą o emocje targające w życiu O’Sullivanem.

Zatem jeśli lubicie autobiografie, a zarazem chcecie poczytać o człowieku z krwi i kości, któremu pomimo ogromnej kariery nie są również obce życiowe trudy i znoje to zapraszam Was do lektury tego tytułu.
 
* https://www.facebook.com/Ksiazkowoczyta *

https://ksiazkowoczyta.blogspot.com/2018/05/zycie-ma-talent-do-kopania-w-tyek-gdy.html

Scott Jurek!  I didn't think it was possible for me to love him more than I already did.  Having read his book Eat and Run and Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, I already considered him a role model and inspiration in the realms of ultrarunning, endurance sport, vegan athletes, and human decency.  When he was making his attempt at a new FKT (fastest known time) for a supported through-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2015, like many people, I was tracking his progress online, reading updates and hoping he'd meet his goal.  Although I'd seen reports about injuries, adverse weather, and other obstacles, I was interested to know more about the 46+-day experience.  When I saw North on a list of recommended books for runners, I was eager to grab the audiobook from my library's e-collection.  The library didn't actually own the edition (yet) when I first searched for it, but I put in a recommendation on the title, and was pleased when I received the notice that the library had obtained it and put me on the list.

The audio edition is narrated by Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek, in alternating chapters.  I loved getting the two different perspectives on what led to the FKT attempt and the experience of executing it. Before Scott's decision to take on the AT, Jenny had gone through a life-threatening loss of an ectopic pregnancy, and Scott had reached an impasse with his running, where he'd train for ultra races but take a DNF because he wasn't feeling it.  What could he do to regain his old spark?  While on a hike together, Jenny challenged him to figure out how to do just that, and the idea of trying for an AT FKT came to him.  The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

They drove from their Colorado home to the southern start of the AT, in Georgia, in their black van dubbed Castle Black (love the Game of Thrones reference!).  Going north on the trail is known as NoBo (northbound) as opposed to starting in Maine and heading down to Georgia being SoBo (southbound).  Scott had been warned that this way was "backwards" and "harder," but he was undaunted.  

One of the cool things that came through in this book was the awesomeness of the running community and ultra community.  Both Jureks acknowledge that they couldn't have succeeded without the help of friends as well as strangers who jumped in to offer help in the form of food, companionship, advice, and encouragement when it was most needed.  And in that same spirit, Scott was back the next year, supporting Karl "Speedgoat" Melzer in a successful new AT FKT attempt.  

I wholeheartedly recommend this to running enthusiasts, ultra enthusiasts, Jurek enthusiasts, and "challenging endeavors that push a person to their personal edge and make them a better version of themselves" enthusiasts.