Just Friends

By: Tiffany Pitcock
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Pages: 317

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.

Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.

First Impressions

Love this cover! It gives me all the feels and is definitely the type of cover that speaks to me. Add to the fact that it counts towards the Debut Author Challenge (which admittedly, I’ve been slacking on this year), and it immediately found a spot on my TBR list.

What I thought

Quick disclosure, I finished this book about a month ago and apparently forgot to write a review. I typically write my reviews immediately following the reading of a book because otherwise, I forget a lot of what I read. I promise I will do my best to give you guys a quality review on this one!

Jenny and Chance are juniors in high school. Jenny is miss perfect and Chance is the bad boy man-whore. In their oral communications class they are assigned as partners on the first day of school to talk about what they did over the summer. Chance asks Jenny to wing it with him and they bounce off each other, spontaneously creating a story about how they’ve been best friends since they were children, even though they only knew of each other vaguely before that moment. What starts as a spur of the moment story, becomes a truth, as two acquaintances grow to become best friends.

Jenny and Chance are an interested duo. Jenny is a perfectionist when it comes to school, but she doesn’t really have any friends. Chance seemingly has all the friends, but none who truly know him or the struggles he has at home. I loved that what began as fiction became reality.

I think I preferred Chance to Jenny overall. I liked Chance and was a sucker for his struggles with his home life (the broken boy). Jenny was ok, but she has some naïve moments that ended up irritating me a little.

The way that their relationship grew was definitely unique. I liked that they immediately clicked, showing you that you don’t always know who will become your friends. The romance, in my opinion, was a little bit too much of a slow burn. There are points where they both start dating other people and those lasted a little too long for my taste. I definitely started feeling a little anxious for them to finally get together.

This was a fun summer read and I think a lot of people will connect with it. I think it’s a strong debut and I look forward to seeing Pitcock’s writing get stronger. I think the longer she writes the more she’ll find her voice and her stories will only get better. Jenny and Chance had some realy fun moments and banter. I especially loved how vivid the moments in the barn were. They made me wish that that could have been my life as a teenager! If you enjoy young adult love stories, you will love this book. It wasn’t quite perfection for me, but I would recommend it to people who like opposites attract romances. 

Hide & Seek (Helen Grace #6)

By: M.J Arlidge
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Pages: 368

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Prison is no place for a detective
Helen Grace was one of the country's best police investigators. 
Now she's behind bars with the killers she caught.

Framed for murder
She knows there is only way out: 
stay alive until her trial and somehow prove her innocence.

Locked up with a killer
But when a mutilated body is found in the cell next door,
Helen fears her days are numbered. 

A murderer is on the loose. 
And she must find them.
Before she's next . . .

First Impressions

I received a copy of Little Boy Blue last year and was left hanging at the end. I knew immediately I wanted to read the next book in the series. I actually went back and decided to read the first book in the series and enjoyed it as well. I have been looking forward to reading this book since I finished the last one, so I was very excited to get the opportunity to read this book.

What I thought

This book picks up right where the last one left off. So if you haven’t read (and plan on) reading the books in the series, there will be spoilers.

Detective Helen Grace is in jail, following the accusations that she is a serial killer. The prison is a violent place, and being a cop is not helpful. But when an inmate is murdered, she’s the only one with experience to solve it.

I liked how this was different from most murder/cop mysteries since it takes place within a prison. It allowed for some unique storylines and I enjoyed that aspect of it. On the other hand, it does decrease the chances for action since the setting is very limited.

There were also two mysteries going on through this story. The main mystery being the prison murder, the second being the mission to find Robert Stonehill, Helen Grace’s nephew who framed her for the murders that landed her in jail.

I don’t know exactly what it was about this book that didn’t grab me as much as the others. I’m guessing it’s the setting and that Grace didn’t have as many resources, so the investigation part is limited. While it’s an interesting storyline ad it makes for a different type of mystery, I don’t think I’d find myself reading another murder mystery that takes place from within a prison. I will say that this story still managed to keep me guessing! I thought for sure that it was one of two people and it ended up being neither. That alone will make me keep reading this series.

While this wasn’t as fascinating and un-put-downable as the last one, I enjoyed the story. I still like Detective Helen Grace and her team and am curious to see where it goes next. I still plan on going back and reading books 2-4 (since I’ve now read 1, 5, and 6) to really get an understanding of Grace and her team. If you like thrillers that are a bit gruesome, I recommend checking out this series. Each one I’ve read has been interesting and kept me guessing!

Book Club October 2017

By: Rufi Thope
Published Year: 2016
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 303

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Lucas and Katya were boarding school seniors when, blindingly in love, they decided to have a baby. Seventeen years later, after years of absence, Lucas is a weekend dad, newly involved in his daughter Vera's life. But after Vera suffers a terrifying psychotic break at a high school party, Lucas takes her to Lithuania, his grandmother's homeland, for the summer. Here, in the city of Vilnius, Lucas hopes to save Vera from the sorrow of her diagnosis. As he uncovers a secret about his grandmother, a Home Army rebel who escaped Stutthof, Vera searches for answers of her own. Why did Lucas abandon her as a baby? What really happened the night of her breakdown? And who can she trust with the truth? 

What I thought

There was something about this book that really go under my skin. I really struggled with reading it as it gave me a constant feeling of anxiety and unease. I actually debated at one point not finishing the book, but I powered through.

Lucas is a 35 year old man who is the father of 17 year old Vera. He hasn’t really been a part of her life and has never been married to her mother. He has only truly been a part of Vera’s life for the fast 4-5 years. Early in the book, Vera is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Both Lucas and her mother Katya have a difficult time believing and accepting this diagnosis. Lucas decides that taking Vera on a trip to Lithuania, where he wants to go to learn about his roots, will be good for her. While there, she writes home to her boyfriend, Fang, and those letters start each chapter.

I didn’t mind Lucas’s story much (though he’s a bit of a bumbling idiot which was irritating), but Vera’s letters just drained me. I started to skip them as the books went on. They were incomprehensible philosophical ramblings and honestly, they just got to me. I think that this means that Thorpe did a good job writing from the perspective of a person with a mental disorder, but it was a big struggle for me.

Between Lucas’s immaturity and Vera’s mental instability, I didn’t find much enjoyable about this book. It was a struggle for me pretty much from page one and I think I only really enjoyed the last 10% off the book.

What Book Club Thought

Book club definitely enjoyed this book more than I did. They liked how realistic it was and how Thorpe wrote Lucas to be in such denial of his daughter’s mental status that he ignores obvious signs that she is on the verge of another mental break down. We did agree that seeing the view of Katya change throughout the book was a positive and an interesting development. In the end, while I didn’t enjoy the book, it did make for some good book club discussion. I think there was just something about it that at my core made me feel so uncomfortable I just couldn’t enjoy it.

The Rules of Magic

By: Alice Hoffman
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Simone & Schuster
Pages: 384

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I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

First Impressions

I received an email asking for me to review this book and I honestly wasn’t too sure about it. The only other novel I have read by Hoffman (Faithful) I didn’t enjoy, and I’ve never seen the movie Practical Magic. However, the summary intrigued me, so I decided to give it a shot. Honestly, I would not have picked this up based on the cover. It wasn’t something that drew me in.

What I thought

As I mentioned above, I have never watched (nor read) Practical Magic, so I didn’t really have any background or expectations.

Rules of Magic is a prequel to Practical Magic and focuses on the lives of the aunts who are older in Practical Magic. Franny, Jet, and Vincent are siblings who live in New York. Their family bloodline is based in magic and witches, but their parents don’t acknowledge this and discourage ay type of magical behavior. At the age of 17, Franny is invited to spend the summer at their Aunt Isabelle’s house in Massachusetts. Her siblings go with and they start to learn more about their family history.

This story was very interesting and I appreciated a lot of the historical aspects. It had a similar feeling to Discovery of Witches to me and I enjoyed that. It was interesting to see how Franny, Jet, and Vincent grew. Their journeys of self-discovery were what really helped this story move along.

My only complaint about the story was that it was a little slow to start and kind of difficult to get into. There were parts where I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going, so that was a bit tricky. However, it did pick up once they got to their Aunt Isabelle’s and they started to dabble into magic a bit more.

If you aren’t into magic and witches, I would still encourage you to check out this book. It has a lot of aspects that are just growing pains for young adults. Franny, Jet, and Vincent deal with tragedies as well as their own identities and that is so relatable, even if their magic powers through some extra complication into the mix.

I also feel like this book does a great job as a prequel, even though I haven’t read the original book. I could imagine reading Practical Magic and having two characters you didn’t know much about but who were fascinating and wanting to know as much as you could. I’m sure that this book accomplishes that perfectly and that any fans of Practical Magic will enjoy this book.

When a book encourages me to go back and read previous books in the series that I have never read, I think it has accomplished it’s mission. I enjoyed getting to know Franny, Jet, and Vincent and am curious to see how the rest of their lives play out. If you like coming of age novels with a bit of a twist, I would definitely recommend checking this book out.

Fireworks

By: Katie Cutugno
Published Year 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray
Pages: 336

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): It was always meant to be Olivia. She was the talented one, the one who had been training to be a star her whole life. Her best friend, Dana, was the level-headed one, always on the sidelines, cheering her best friend along. 

But everything changes when Dana tags along with Olivia to Orlando for the weekend, where superproducer Guy Monroe is holding auditions for a new singing group, and Dana is discovered too. Dana, who’s never sung more than Olivia’s backup. Dana, who wasn’t even looking for fame. Next thing she knows, she and Olivia are training to be pop stars, and Dana is falling for Alex, the earnest, endlessly talented boy who’s destined to be the next big thing. 

It should be a dream come true, but as the days of grueling practice and constant competition take their toll, things between Olivia and Dana start to shift . . . and there’s only room at the top for one girl. For Olivia, it’s her chance at her dream. For Dana, it’s a chance to escape a future that seems to be closing in on her. And for these lifelong best friends, it’s the adventure of a lifetime—if they can make it through. 

Set in evocative 1990s Orlando, New York Times bestselling author Katie Cotugno’s Fireworks brings to life the complexity of friendship, the excitement of first love, and the feeling of being on the verge of greatness.

First Impressions

If this cover doesn’t scream fun, I don’t know what does! I read 99 days by Cutugno a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so when I saw that she had a new book coming out it caught my eye. Her cover and the summary would’ve grabbed me even if I didn’t know who she was. Love at first sight!

What I thought

Drama!

It’s the 90’s and Orlando and boy/girl bands are all the rage! Dana and Olivia are best friends from a suburb of Atlanta. Olivia has dreams of pop stardom, while Dana is just hoping to not be stuck in their hometown forever. When Olivia brings Dana along on an audition to be a part of the newest produced girl band in Orlando, their worlds are both turned upside down when Dana is asked to audition as well.

My childhood was at the peak of the boy/girl band production. Orlando was HUGE for music production and companies were cranking them out one after the other. Backstreet Boys, N’SYNC, Spice Girls, 98 Degrees, the list goes on. It was such fun to have a story that took place right in the midst of that world.

Olivia is a bit spoiled as she comes from a well-to-do family and has never had to work for anything a day in her life. Dana is the complete opposite in that she has been working a job since she was 16 and is taking care of her alcoholic mom. The two have been best friends since kindergarten and are initially happy to be going on an adventure together. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes as planned. Dana has never wanted to be a popstar, so this is all new to her while Olivia and the other two girls in their band have only ever wanted this. The fact that Dana is so inexperienced is definitely a point of contention.

In addition to the inner girl group drama, there is boy drama as well! The newest upcoming boy band is staying at the same facility and you know what happens when you put teenage boys and girls in the same place. And of course, Olivia and Dana end up having their eye on the same guy. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that while it follows some of the typical cheesy storylines, it has such an aspect of realness to is that makes it stand out. For example, Dana and Olivia both like the same guy, but Olivia has “dibs” since she had a crush on him 4 years ago. When I mentioned this to my friend, she was like “What? No one can have dibs for that long! And doesn’t the guy have a say in the matter?” Well, a few pages later the guy in fact says something along those lines! It was great.

There is some fascinating relationship drama within this story and the world of popstars is interesting as well. Like I mentioned, even though some of the dramatic tropes are similar to what you find in most YA, it’s done in a different way. All those questions you have of “it wouldn’t happen this way in real life would it?” are addressed in this story. It just adds an element that makes this book so satisfying to read.

Let’s be honest, anything that has 90’s boy bands in it is automatically going to win my heart, but this book really did execute it so well. Dana and Olivia were unique characters who had growth and it was fun to watch them change. I didn’t fully expect the trajectory of the book which made it even more enjoyable. If you are a lover of the 90s boy band era or if you love friendship drama I highly recommend checking this book out. Cutugno has done it again!

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse

By: Tom Verducci
Published Year: 2017
Publisher: Crown Achetype
Pages: 375

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions. 
It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. 
How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs' transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. 
Beginning with Epstein's first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond "Moneyball" thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called "The Cubs Way," he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics. 
To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs' bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge. 
The Cubs Way takes readers behind the scenes, chronicling how key players like Rizzo, Russell, Lester, and Arrieta were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein and coached by Maddon to outperform expectations. Together, Epstein and Maddon proved that clubhouse culture is as important as on-base-percentage, and that intangible components like personality, vibe, and positive energy are necessary for a team to perform to their fullest potential. 
Verducci chronicles the playoff run that culminated in an instant classic Game Seven. He takes a broader look at the history of baseball in Chicago and the almost supernatural element to the team's repeated loses that kept fans suffering, but also served to strengthen their loyalty. 
The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.

First Impressions

Wooooo!!!!! I was so excited when I found out that this book was coming out. I am a Cubs fan and experiencing their World Series win was one of the most exciting moments of my life so far. As soon as the game ended, I knew I wanted a book that delved into the process of how this team was developed and how all of these characters I love were acquired. When I read the summary for this book I knew it was everything that I had been hoping for and it shot to the top of my to read list.

What I thought

This book is everything a Cubs fan will want and more!!

The Cubs Way discusses histories of how each impact player was acquired to the Cubs, starting with Tom Ricketts (the owner) and Theo Epstein (the president). Intermixed with the stories of the players is a recap of each game of the World Series.

I loved how Verducci explained how each and every player that had an impact on the World Series win was acquired to the Cubs. Every one of them had their own portion of a chapter that not only discussed the process in which Epstein went through to get them on the Cubs, but also a little bit about their personal histories. I also liked getting to learn more about Ricketts, Epstein, and Maddon.

While I am (and always have been) a Cubs fan, I have always been more of a passive fan. I have attended at least 1 game a year for the past 10 years, and have always owned a Cubs t-shirt (usually with the name that I found most appealing). However, I have never actively known more than 2-3 players at a time on the team and I don’t religiously watch the games on TV. In fact, I think the last time I watched a Cubs game on TV prior to 2016 was in 2003. As a result, any Cubs knowledge that I have comes from one of my best friends and one of the biggest Cubs fans I know. Getting to learn more in depth information about the Cubs team through this book was so satisfying.

As I am not an avid baseball fanatic, I don’t know anything about baseball statistics. Unfortunately, since Verducci is a sports writer, this book is riddled with statistics. I think that he could have cut down on them a bit, just assuming that there would be a high quantity of Cubs fans who do not know statistics the same way he does. At the very least, I would’ve appreciated some explanation about the basics so that the numbers meant something to me as I read them. I will say, that while I still don’t fully understand the statistics I have learned more about baseball than I have ever known thanks to this book.

Other than that, the writing was top notch. Reading each game made me feel like I was watching them all over again. I felt the same anxiety as I did living through them the first time, but got to enjoy experiencing them in a new way with different perspectives from players, Maddon, and Epstein.

This book is everything! I would recommend it to any Cubs fan and baseball fan (with the exception of White Sox and Indian fans). The process is fascinating and getting to know more about this team of good guys is such a great experience. I don’t think I could ask for more from this book. I’ve always (for a whole 5 months!) wanted to know how this team got to where they did and how they came together over the course of 5 years and this book had it all. I can’t rave about this book enough! Just read it and enjoy!

Book Club September 2017

I picked this book because I had seen it on a few lists of recommended book club books. I also am a sucker for alternate timelines. We haven’t ever read anything that is science fiction-y in our book club so I also thought it could be fun to push my friends a little out of their comfort zone.

What I thought

This book took me a little while to get into because the narrators voice is very distinct. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it!

Tom lives in a utopian/futuristic 2016. While there are still issues such as small crime and heartbreak, there are no longer bigger problems such as war. In 1965 the scientist Lionel Gottreider invented a machine that could create limitless, clean energy. This lead to a fast creation of technology and a world which is similar to the Jetsons. In fact, Tom’s dad is currently working on creating a time machine to go back to the moment that Gottreider flipped on the machine that changed the world. However, hen Toms jumps back to the present, he ends up in our “dystopian” 2016 instead of his own.

This book is so well thought out I can’t even begin to explain it. All of the scientific elements are explained and so thorough that I fully expect someone to try these things and create them in real life. But even though this science-fiction novel is solid with the science, there is a lot of good fiction too.

When Tom wakes up in his alternate universe’s body, he is, of course, the same but different. His dystopian 2016 personality is named John and John has been having dreams from Tom’s world and memories. The other aspect I really enjoyed was that when Tom tried to explain what had happened to his family, the legitimately thought he was mentally ill. Which, you know, if my brother came up to me saying he wasn’t really my brother that I knew but was from an alternate version of our reality, I wouldn’t think he was sane ether. But Mastai wrote this aspect of the book really well.

With the exception of the ending, which I found a bit confusing I really enjoyed this book. It made me realize that I may be more of a sci-fi fan than I thought!

What Book Club Thought

We had some interesting discussion about our personal feelings of time travel and whether or not we believe it could truly happen. It was a lot of fun to discuss! Everyone enjoyed the book and felt that the voice of the book was unique adn interesting. There were definitely some parts of the book that were confusing that we needed to clarify as a group, but overall it was a lot of fun and easy to read. The best part was that no one seemed to have major issues with this book! 

The Future She Left Behind

By: Marin Thomas
Published Year: 2017
Pages: 352
Publisher: Berkley

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): One woman's journey home gets derailed by her soon-to-be ex-mother-in-law in a novel filled with humor, small-town charm, rekindled love, and the resilient ties of family. 

Cast aside by her cheating husband, Katelyn Chandler is ready to pack it all in and drive home to Little Springs, Texas. She wants a chance to regroup, reconnect with her mother, and get back to her art. 

But Shirley Pratt--master manipulator, elitist snob, and Katelyn's terror of a live-in monster-in-law--has other ideas. Shirley insists on joining Katelyn's trip after her son tries to pack her off to a retirement community. Katelyn has no choice but to play peacekeeper between the ornery old woman and the proud matrons of Little Springs. Yet the small town seems to be changing Shirley. And as Katelyn weighs the wisdom of picking up where she left off with Jackson Mendoza, the town bad boy and her high school sweetheart, she must find a way to believe in the strength of her dreams.

First Impressions

The cover drew me in on this one for sure. I am a sucker for road trip books. I was a bit wary about the mother-in-law aspect of the summary, but decided it could end up being really cute.

What I thought

Katelyn unexpectedly receives divorce papers from her husband of 19 years. He tells her that he is leaving her and that the house will be on the market the next day, leaving her no place to live and the only option for his mother is an apartment that he bought without her input or knowledge. Shirley, Katelyn’s mother-in-law and pain in her a$$, decides she wants to stick it to her jerk of a son and wants to go with Katelyn to Texas. Katelyn decides that she wants to go back to her small hometown in Little Springs Texas to see her mother and get back to the dreams she had before her marriage and her children.

There were a few things here and there that bothered me. Some of them were silly things, like the fact that Shirley is 65 and painted to be a very old woman. I mean, I know that 65 isn’t young, but the way they described her in the summary and even the way that she acts at times, I pictured her as much older. The other thing that bothered me was repetitive writing. It seems as though Thomas repeated a lot of the same phrases throughout the book to really drive home the thoughts and feelings, but instead I would read them and just think “I already know this.” For example, every time Jackson and Katelyn were thinking about each other it was the same old thoughts. Because of that, I never felt like I wanted them to get together.

Personally, Shirley and Birdie were my favorite part of the entire story. I loved their pasts and how they were dealing with their present. I also really enjoyed their banter and wish we could have seem some more of their interactions.

Unfortunately, Katelyn fell a little flat to me. While I liked a lot of the aspects of her personality, such as her strength and resilience, she was a bit whiney and never seemed to quite find herself. It just seemed like over and over again she was realizing that she hadn’t been as happy in her marriage as she originally thought she was.

There was not a true road trip element to this book, contrary to what the cover would make you believe. Shirley and Katelyn make it to Text pretty quickly.  The cast of side characters in the smalle town of Little Springs was wonderful. I would gladly read more books about the town and the people in it. I just didn’t connect with Katelyn as much as I wanted to, even though I enjoyed her story.

I think there are a lot of fun and interesting parts to his story, but something about it just didn’t completely click with me. I loved Little Springs and I liked Shirley, but the over all story was just kind of bland. I would recommend it if you like simple, small town stories, but I think I have other books that would be recommended before this one came to mind. I can easily see this one fading in my memory like one of the trains that passes through Little Springs Texas on its way to a bigger city.