Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 2024
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
Genre:  Fiction, Comedy

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “SWAMP STORY”

I bought this book at a book promotion sale on the Kobo website. It was a good price, and the quick reviews kept saying the book was funny. I was flying to Italy for vacation and wanted a fun book to read during the flight.

I truly liked this book. It was funny (laughing out loud funny), fast-paced, with sharp, dumb, malicious, ridiculous characters that kept making the story funnier as the story developed. The end was amazing. I was wondering how all the characters would mesh together, and when it was done, it was done in a wonderful way where the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and as needed, some characters got redemption.

This book was a fast read, and it is entertaining from the very beginning til the end. The funny moments were many and filled the story with ridiculous moments that made perfect sense for the story, the location, and the characters.

This was a 5-star read for me.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure, which could solve all her problems—if she can figure out how to keep it. The problem is some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it.

Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is, in fact, an unemployed alcoholic newspaperman named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the Monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned. In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned. This is, after all, Florida.

MY RATING: 5.0

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ARIA ABER

The New York Times has pronounced Dave Barry “the funniest man in America.” But of course that could have been on a slow news day when there wasn’t much else fit to print. True, his bestselling collections of columns are legendary, but it is his wholly original books that reveal him as an American icon. Dave Barry Slept Here was his version of American history. Dave Barry Does Japan was a contribution to international peace and understanding from which Japan has not yet fully recovered. Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys is among the best-read volumes in rehab centers and prisons. Raised in a suburb of New York, educated in a suburb of Philadelphia, he lives now in a suburb of Miami. He is not, as he often puts it so poetically, making this up.

Dave’s most recent books are “Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland,” and “Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog.” His next book, “A Field Guide To The Jewish People,” which he co-wrote with his friends Adam Mansbach and Alan Zweibel, will be published September 24. Dave is not Jewish, but Adam and Alan are, so it’s kosher.

Bibliography:

• Big Trouble
• Insane City
• Lessons from Lucy