Question: Why do you review books that have been out so long?

You may (or may not) have noticed that the books I review have been out for some time.  I thought it might be helpful to explain why the books I’m reviewing have been out a while.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. I only read library books.  I very, very rarely read books that are bought.  This creates a conundrum when people give me books for gifts. I love getting books for gifts.  Unfortunately, it takes me ages to actually get around to reading it because I usually have to read my library books first. 
2. Are you aware I have two children?  Enough said.  I get a little bit of time at the end of the day to read.  I rarely read during the day if I do have some downtime because I usually end up falling asleep.  This doesn't help in staying on top of the latest and greatest.
3. Because of the library, I have a system for how I check books out.  I put books on hold when I request them (rather than perusing at the library).  A lot of times I end up freezing these holds because I can only handle so many books checked out at a time.  I eventually unfreeze these books, months later most of the time.
4. I am not a *real* book critic, so I don't get to review books pre-release.  Yet!

Hope that helps!

Book review: Crazy Rich Asians

Title: Crazy Rich Asians
Author: Kevin Kwan
Rating: .5 stars out of 5

Summary: This book is about several wealthy Asian families.  Really really wealthy Asian families. I suppose there was some other aspect to this story but I never made it through.

My Review: Yes, that's correct--.5 stars.  As in a half.  This book was terrible.  I didn’t make it past page 63.  I’ve read books about wealthy people before.  It can be fun to live vicariously through wealthy people and get a sense of their heavy burdens.  But this book was so over the top. I think that was supposed to be the point, but I didn’t get it.  I also think it was supposed to be funny, but it was just odd.  A book has to be pretty bad for me to give up on it so early, but this is certainly one of them.  Take this as a warning to not waste your time.

Book review: Cuckoo's Calling

Title: Cuckoo's Calling
Author: Robert Gailbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Nick is a down on his luck detective (is there any other kind?). He’s visited by the brother of a famous young model who had committed suicide a few months prior.  The brother doesn’t think she committed suicide and wants Nick to investigate further.  Hilarity ensues.  Not really.

My review: I resisted reading this book for a long time primarily because George X is actually J.K. Rowling.  I know many people love the Harry Potter books and I’ll probably introduce the girls to them one day but I couldn’t get into them.  This book appealed to me though, despite the fact that I feel like I’ve read a lot of “woman commits suicide but was it really a suicide” as of late.  So I finally caved and I’m glad I did—it was really good.  The characters have depth and you could tell that the detective was starting to figure out the killer, but it ended up not being the person you thought it was. I like twists like that.

I’m pretty sure this is setting the stage for an ongoing series with the detective.  There’s already another book in the works under Gailbraith’s name.  There’s a side story with his admin, who started off as a temp but is slowly becoming more of a sidekick (plus an eventual romance?).  I’d definitely be inclined to check out the next installment.

Book review: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

Title: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Author: Andrew Sean Greer
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: It's 1985 and Greta Wells is dealing with the death of her twin brother and a breakup with her longtime love Nathan.  In an attempt to deal with her crippling depression, Greta embarks on a series of radical psychiatric treatments.  Each treatment takes her between three different time periods: 1985, 1918 and 1941.  In the alternate time periods the people in her 1985 life are still there--her brother, Nathan, and others but her life is radically different in each.  As her treatments end, which year will she stay in?       

My review: The last chapter of this book saved it for me.  I really liked the year Greta ultimately chose and  the reason for it.  Until then, I was ambivalent about the book.  It was a quick read, thus the reason I stayed with it.  Of course, it was also a nice change from the "was it a suicide or not" genre I had been stuck in.

Book Review: Reconstructing Amelia

Title: Reconstructing Amelia: A Novel
Author: Kimberly McCreight
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: A Manhattan lawyer in the middle of an important meeting gets a call that her 15 year old daughter has just been suspended from school and needs to be picked up.  The single mom leaves to pick up her daughter only to find out when she gets to school that her daughter is dead from suicide.  A mysterious text message suggests that she didn't commit suicide but was actually pushed.  This leads the grieving mom to investigate and uncover the terrifying bullying her daughter was going through before her death.

My review:  I seem to be reading a lot of books lately about either Manhattan or suicides that aren't.  One of the next books I'll be reviewing is about the latter, but I need a break from suicides that are murders.  Anyway, I'm still working out my rating system.  I liked this book a lot.  Does this mean it gets 4 stars?  Or 5?  If I give it 4, I might have to re-rank one of my previous 4 stars to a 3.  Oh the conundrums of a reviewer.  I don't want to give out too many fives, you know?

Anyway, the book. Amelia is the girl that dies.  She went to an expensive high school in Brooklyn and was tapped to be in a secret club.  I have a weakness for stories about rich people and the spoiled and entitled people they spawn.  But this was also a story about a single mom and her teenage daughter and how they basically grew up together.  Their relationship wasn't perfect, but I liked how close they were--it was them against the world.  The mom is devastated to learn of her daughter's death, as any mom would.  The bullying aspect was horrific, but unfortunately it wasn't too far off of some real-life bullying stories that have been in the media the last few years.  The book ends about as well as one could expect it to--the mom finds out the truth but of course it won't bring her daughter back. 

Book Review: The Exiles

Title: The Exiles: A Novel
Author: Allison Lynn

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Nate and Emily and their young son escape from the pressures of Manhattan to make a new start in Newport, RI.  Their first weekend in Newport starts poorly and leads to revelations from both of them that makes them both wonder if they really know their partner as well as they thought they did.  And are the discoveries about their partner deal-breakers?

My Review:  For some reason I kept thinking the title of this book was The Ex-Files.  This book was good but it wasn't great.  Here's what I did like: 

1. The Newport location.  Who doesn't like Newport?

1. The idea of how Manhattan just isn't affordable for a "regular" couple.

1. The lack of closure that one of the characters has to deal with at the end of the book.

If you like books about relationships, then you'll like this book.  It's not going to win any literary awards, but I like the idea that just when you think you know your partner really well, you find out that you don't.  But it's what you do with the information that determines how you'll do as a couple in the future.

Book Review: Night Film

Title: Night Film: A Novel
Author: Marisha Pessl
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars 

Summary:  The daughter of a reclusive film director is found dead in an abandoned warehouse, presumably by suicide.  A disgraced reporter is intrigued by the daughter's death and investigates further. 

My Review:  I have to admit, I didn't realize until after I got this that this was the same woman that wrote Special Topics in Calamity Physics.  I couldn't finish Special Topics, so if I realized it was the same author, I probably wouldn't have read it.  Fortunately, I didn't realize this until I was already reading this book. 

I loved this book.  It was suspenseful and scary.  This is one of those books that you'd read before bed and you wouldn't want to put down.  The book was interspersed with "real" articles about the author and her daughter.  I got the sense that the Kindle version is more interactive, which would be cool to see.

Did you read it?  What did you think?