Book review: The Children's Crusade

Title: The Children's Crusade
Author: Ann Packer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Audiobook

Summary: Bill Packer buys land when he's starting out in the Bay Area as a young doctor.  It will be the perfect place to raise a family that doesn't exist yet.  He meets Penny Greenway and they have four kids.  Years later, the youngest, James, appears and uproots the other kid's lives.  What does James want after all these years?

Review:  As previously stated in past reviews, I'm a sucker for three things--post apocalypse stories, addiction tales and dysfunctional families.  Side note; Imagine a story about all three?  Well, this one is just the latter but it's still good.  There's a good balance of shifting between the parents and the kids, although the ending is a bit fuzzy for me.  Also, it takes place in the Bay Area.  Overall, good character depth and things aren't fully resolved, which I like.

Time to write: 2:56

Book Review: The Possibilities

Title: The Possibilities
Author: Kaui Hart Hemmings
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary: Sarah St. John is dealing with the sudden death of her son.   Nobody--not her dad, best friend or her son's dad can help her with her grief. When a woman appears to link to her son, she has the potential to change Sarah's life forever.

Review:  I could have sworn that I wrote this review ages ago but apparently I didn't.  I happened to read this in the midst of other books about children dying.  It wasn't as sad as I thought it was going to be.  Again, the story was fine, just nothing earth shattering.  Perhaps I'm getting overly critical?  Somebody wow me!

Time to write: 1:21

Book review: That night

Title: That Night
Author: Chevy Stevens
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Audiobook

Summary: Toni Murphy is a typical teenager--she has a boyfriend that she's crazy about, her little sister annoys her and she fights with her parents.  Toni's also bullied at school by a group of four girls.  These four girls seem bent on ruining Toni's life.

Toni's life changes forever when Toni's sister is killed and Toni and her boyfriend are charged and convicted with her murder.  After serving her time, Toni's back in her hometown.  She wants to prove her innocence and find her sister's killer.

Review:  I finished this book months ago and I'm just getting to writing the review.  I initially gave this three stars but I'm going to bump it up to four.  I really liked Toni and her toughness, as well as her drive to prove her innocence in a town where she was considered a bad seed.  For obvious reasons not a lot of people (including her parents) trusted her when she came back to town.  I suppose she really had nothing to lose.  A good murder mystery if you're into those!

Time to write: 4:22

Book review: After Birth

Title: After Birth
Author: Elisa Albert
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Format: e-book

Summary: Ari had her son Walker a year ago but she still can't find her place back in the world.  When a legendary rocker (who also happens to be pregnant), moves to her town in upstate New York, Ari is cautiously optimistic that she's found a new partner in crime.

Review: I wanted to like this book, I just couldn't get into it.  I got it--the transition of becoming a mom and the isolation that can go along with that.  Also, the feeling that this wasn't necessarily something you always wanted but once it came along it was awesome.  But it just didn't hold my interest--I couldn't remember the various characters and it just seemed to meander along.

Time to write: 1:08

Book review: Family Life

Title: Family Life
Author: Akhil Sharma
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: I'm getting lazy with this one.  I'm going to steal from Amazon's description: We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishras is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: when automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important. Pressing an elevator button and the elevator closing its doors and rising, they have a feeling of power at the fact that the elevator is obeying them. Life is extraordinary until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother severely brain-damaged and the other lost and virtually orphaned in a strange land. Ajay, the family’s younger son, prays to a God he envisions as Superman, longing to find his place amid the ruins of his family’s new life.

Review: Here I am, behind again.  I read this a few months ago and I gave it four stars but I can't remember why.  So....trust me?  In all seriousness, it was an extremely well-written book and to see the changes to this family when tragedy struck was sad yet accurate (or so I would imagine).

Time to write: 1:30

Book review: Party Like a President: true tales of inebriation, lechery, and mischief from the Oval Office

Title: Party like a president : true tales of inebriation, lechery, and mischief from the Oval Office
Author: Brian Adams
Illustrations: John Mathias
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  A president-by-president account of all the various vices the POTUS' were emboldened to.  

Review: I love a good addiction story and to hear about all of the Presidents' various vices was a dream book.  What's not to love?  Booze, women, drugs, gluttony--what more could you want to know about our great country's leaders?  The main reason I didn't give it the full five stars is it would have been nice to hear a little more dirt about some of them.

Time to write: 1:48

Book review: A Fall of Marigolds

Title: A Fall of Marigolds
Author: Susan Meissner
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: This is a tale of two women--Clara and Taryn.  Clara is working as a nurse on Ellis Island in 1911.  She can't bear to return to Manhattan after witnessing the man she loved fall to his death during the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.  Taryn's story takes place in Manhattan in 2011.  Taryn's husband died on 9/11.  Taryn was supposed to meet him in the Tower to tell him she was pregnant but she was running behind and she survived while her husband died.  Their stories are blended by a beautiful scarf that provides comfort to both of them in their time of need.

Review: I wanted to like this book more.  There was nothing wrong with it.  It just wasn't great.  Maybe I feel like it should have been more heavy.  There are some heavy topics here but it didn't get too deep.  Everything was pulled together in a pretty bow at the end and sometimes I get disappointed by those.

Time to write: 1:38

Book review: World Made by Hand

Title: World Made by Hand
Author: James Howard Kunstler
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  The world as we know it has ended.  Washington DC was blown up and there might be a new President, but nobody's really sure.  Everybody has had to start over because there isn't any access to oil, gas or electricity is intermittent at best.  In the town of Union Grove, New York, the residents have created their own society.  When a pack of religious extremists come to town, they bring their own brand of law and order.

Review: If you read this blog often you know I'm a sucker for a good post-apocalypse tale. Reading books like this one where everybody that survives has to start over reminds me how screwed I'd be in an actual apocalypse and that deep down I really am quite a princess.  I might enjoy becoming a farmer though I suspect I'd become a vegetarian because I don't think I could handle killing and taking care of my own meat/chicken/game.  Anyway, the book.  The book is good and apparently part of a series.  I'm not sure if there's a prequel to this.  It seems like there might be because the book glosses over what led to the apocolaypse, implying that one already knew. Or it really wasn't that important.  Reading about the book on Amazon it apparently started when the world's oil supply ran out.  I didn't really pick up on this at all. I thought it was about an epidemic.  Regardless, I look forward to reading the next one in the series.

Time to write:  4:32

Book review: Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's post-crash Recruits

Title: Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's post-crash Recruits
Author: Kevin Roose
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Wall Street. It used to be the go-to job of Ivy grads looking to make money and set themselves up for a long boring career that would make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.  But how has the 2008 crash changed this career path and does it still hold the same appeal to today's generation getting out of college?

Review:  I was intrigued by this book and the peek it provided into a world that holds no interest to me yet I'm sort of fascinated by it.  What's the point of working 100 hour weeks if you can't enjoy life?  I liked that some of these kids didn't buy into the hype.  This world will always hold some appeal to some but it's promising to hear that it seems to have lost its luster.

Time to write: 1:56

Book review: Everybody Rise

Title: Everybody Rise
Author: Stephanie Clifford
Format: Audio book
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Evelyn comes from new money.  Her social-climbing mom is constantly pushing her to connect with Evelyn's prep school alum and find a successful and wealthy man to marry.  When Evelyn gets a job at "Facebook for the elite", she finally gets her in. The problem is that Evelyn makes up lie after lie to keep up appearances until she can't get out of her own way or climb over the huge mountain of debt she's gotten herself into.

Review:  I was on the fence about giving this review three stars, but I couldn't do it.  That being said, the book isn't terrible in the way you think it might be.  I gave this book the rating I did because it was stressful to listen to Evelyn's attempts to horn her way into the world of the extremely wealthy.  Listening to her get herself more and more into debt was tense.  You also knew that it wasn't going to end well for her, so I was constantly waiting for that.  I think there were funny parts to this book but I was so stressed out I didn't notice.  Also, I listened to this book and many of the characters' voices were like nails on a chalkboard. I almost switched to a physical book format but I stayed with the audio version, which lost it another star. Do what you will with this information.

Time to write: 5:10

Book review: A God in Ruins

Title: A God in Ruins
Author: Kate Atkinson
Format: e-book
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Ted Todd is a WWII pilot.  After the war, he marries his childhood sweetheart Nancy and they have a daughter, Viola.  Viola has two kids of her own--Sonny and Bertie.  This story rotates through history and characters to create the story that is A God in Ruins.

Review: Like We Were Liars, this is another book with a twist ending.  The twist startled me so much that when it happened, I had to re-read it to make sure I had read it correctly.  This book is also by the same woman that wrote Life After Life, which is about Ursula Todd.  I had tried to read Life After Life but I found it unreadable.  I'm sure it was good, but it wasn't the book for me at the time.

The reason I bring it up at all is that A God in Ruins focuses on Ted, Ursula's brother.  A God in Ruins was great but it could have used some editing.  For example, I didn't think the excerpts of the Augustus book were necessary.  It also jumped around quite a bit which could be jarring for my easily confused mind.  All that aside, it was still a great book.

Time to write: 5:36

Book review: We Were Liars

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Format: e-book
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Cadence Eastman comes from a wealthy family.  She spends her summers on her family's private island off of the Cape with her cousins Mirren and Johnny, and Gat, who is the son of one of her aunt's boyfriends.  When Cadence is 15, there's a terrible fire on the island.  Cadence returns the island when she's 17 and tries to piece together the events of the fire.  The story flips back and forth between the summers when Cadence is 15 and 17.

Review:  It turns out this is a Young Adult (YA) novel.  Who knew?  This book is also positioned as a suspense novel but I don't think I'd characterize it as that myself.  I'd say this is a coming-of-age novel.  Anyway, this book is great if only for the ending alone.  I almost don't want to say too much here at the risk of giving away the book, so just trust me on this one.

Time to write: 1:34

Book review: The Accident

Title: The Accident

Author: Chris Pavone

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Format: Kindle

Summary:  A mysterious yet explosive manuscript has landed on the desk of literary agent Isabel Reed.  If she's going to publish it she needs to survive first.  Every time another person gets a copy of the manuscript they end up dead.

Review: I have grown to love reading via Kindle but one of the downsides is the inability to quickly go back and re-read segments and this is one of those books that I needed to go back pretty often and try and remember what is happening.  Many of the characters were very mysterious and unidentified at times, so it was sometimes difficult (for me) to figure out which character was speaking (the perspective kept shifting amongst different characters).  Also, I'm not generally a huge fan of "there's a massive global conspiracy of the top business leaders and government leaders of the world."  It's not that I don't think there are conspiracies, I just find it tiresome at times. This is a good suspense novel and I'd recommend it as a beach read (even though summer is over).  The door was left open for a sequel, we'll see what happens with that. Despite this seemingly negative (or lukewarm) review, I'd consider reading the sequel.

Time to write: 5:30

Book review: Us

Title: Us
Author: David Nicholls
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Douglas is a pretty reserved and straight-laced guy.  Despite this, he wooed the artistic Connie into marrying him almost 30 years ago and now their son Albie is 17 years old.  Right before the family is set to depart on a month-long European tour, Connie announces that she wants a divorce.  Should they cancel the trip?  Of course not!  Douglas wants to use the trip to persuade Connie to stay and to attempt to get closer to Albie.  What could go wrong?

Review: One Day is one of my favorite books of all time so I was excited to see Nicholls' latest book.   I couldn't bring myself to see the movie version of One Day because I'm not a huge fan of Anne Hathaway and I didn't want to see yet another movie epically fail to do a book justice.  I digress.

It took me a while to get into Us, but once I did I enjoyed it.  This book certainly didn't go the way I thought it was going to.  How could it?  Here's what I liked:

1. The back story on how Douglas and Connie met.
2. How Douglas' initial perspective on his relationship with his son didn't portray the full story.
3. The disastrous start to the trip and how it evolved.
4. Douglas' acknowledgement that he had made mistakes and his attempts to fix them.
5. The ending.

So why not the full five stars?  Because initially it wasn't one of those books that I was dying to read at the end of the day.  I'd pick it up and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't one that I wanted to stay up all night reading.

Time to write: 6:26

Book review: Department of Speculation

Title: Department of Speculation
Author: Jenny Offill
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Just see what it says on Amazon.  It is not helpful.

Review:  This is one of those books where now that I'm finally getting around to writing the review, I don't have the faintest idea of what it was about.  I took a look at Amazon for some clues but that wasn't terribly helpful either.  When I finish a book, I generally jot down my rating right away.  Since I gave it three stars, I apparently I thought it was alright.  Not terrible but not great.  Not a terribly informative review but there you go.  Did I think it was one of the Top Ten Books of the Year like the NY Times Book Review did?  No, but I think we all know that the NYTBR and I generally aren't on the same page anyway.

Time to write: 4:16

Book review: Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget

Title: Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget

Author: Sarah Hepola

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Sarah's a blackout drinker.  What's a blackout?  A blackout is essentially an empty space in your mind where you don't remember what happened. Blacking out is not the same as passing out. Sarah would wake up in a strange bed (or her own bed) and have no idea how she got there.  Sometimes there'd be a man in the bed with her and she'd have no idea who the guy was.  Sarah decided she needed to get alcohol out of her life and come to terms with who she was without alcohol.

Review: I've always been a sucker for addiction stories. I watched Intervention for years and recently got sucked back into it.  I have a fascination with understanding what led people to go down the path of addiction (or get dragged) and what motivates them to get better.  This book was right up my alley.  Sarah's accounts of her alcoholism and blackouts is raw and honest.  It takes a lot of courage to share that she doesn't remember things.  Highly recommended.

Time to write: 4:23  

Book review: Every Fifteen Minutes

Title: Every Fifteen Minutes

Author: Lisa Scottoline

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Format: Audiobook

Summary: Dr. Eric Parrish is having a bad month.  His relationship with his ex-wife is increasingly estranged and their informal co-parenting arrangement is falling apart.  To make matters worse, he was just accused of sexual harassment by a Resident who is mad that Dr. Parrish rebuffed her advances.  Oh, and a patient of his may have murdered somebody and because Dr. Parrish won't violate doctor/patient confidentiality, he's considered a suspect as well.  Dr. Parrish is having a hard time getting anybody to believe him.  Can he clear his name?

Review:  Dr. Parrish sure sticks to his guns when it comes to sticking to doctor/patient confidentiality.  I would love to know if he was right in not sharing what was discussed in his sessions with his patient Max.  I remember when I was listening to this book that I kept thinking, "I think I would sing like a canary."  Not that there was any concrete proof that Max did anything, it was all very circumstantial.  Of course, I would have also lawyered up quicker than Dr. Parrish did because everybody knows you can't trust detectives to actually listen to you.  Poor naive Dr. Parrish.  They're there to solve a murder and Dr. Parrish did look kind of guilty himself, although again, for circumstantial reasons.  Anyhoo, it all worked out in the end.  The twist at the end was kind of fun, but all in all, I think my general dislike of Dr. Parrish led me to give this book three stars over four.  I leaned toward four stars, but this was a good book, not a great book.  

Time to write: 5:03

  

Book review: I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

Title: I am having so much fun here without you
Author: Courtney Maum
Rating:  2 out of 5 stars

Summary: British artist Richard Haddon's first solo show in Paris has been a resounding success but he's too broken up over his mistress leaving him to enjoy it.  When he discovers that a painting that he originally gave to his wife was sold, he's jarred back to reality and realizes he wants to stay with his wife. Unfortunately at the same time, Richard's wife founds out the extent of the affair and she kicks him out of the house.  Thus begins a series of attempts of Richard trying to woo back his wife.

Review: Remember the post about a book not being memorable but not terrible?  This is another one of those.  This is another one of those books where I read the reviews when I was getting ready to write this and I thought, "what am I missing?  Is it me?  Am I not a sophisticated enough reader?"  Well, maybe I'm not sophisticated, but if you want sophisticated reviews, I encourage you to check out The New Yorker or The New York Times Book Review.  For regular ol' folk like me, this book wasn't particularly memorable or didn't grab me.  So there.

Time to write: 2:05

Book review: The Secret Place

Title: The Secret Place
Author: Tana French
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Stephen Moran is looking for a chance to join Dublin's Murder Squad.  He gets his chance when 16 YO Holly Mackey, a witness from an old case, approaches him about a picture that was posted of  a boy that was murdered a year ago at her boarding school.  Stephen joins the case with Detective Antoinette Conway and they enter the strange and dangerous world of boarding school.

Review:  I really liked the previous two books in the Dublin Murder Squad series, so I was looking forward to this book.  But for some reason, I just couldn't get into this book.  I'm not entirely sure why, I didn't look forward to reading it each night. Maybe it was too long, maybe I was annoyed by the Irish slang, I don't know.  Whatever the reason, this book took forever to read.  The only reason I finished it is because I felt so invested and I'd passed the point where I could give up without feeling like I hadn't invested too much time in it.  Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.

Time to write: 4:04

Book review: Aquarium

Title: Aquarium
Author:  David Vann
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Caitlin lives with her mom in Washington state.  It's just the two of them.  Caitlin's mom works as a docker at the port.  After school each day Caitlin goes to the aquarium to lose herself in the underwater world.  Caitlin befriends an elderly man at the aquarium.  When he reveals his true identity Caitlin's world goes topsy turvy.

Review:  Wow, Caitlin's mom is a piece of work.  This is definitely a dark book and I'm glad to see that even though I'm writing this review late (again), the rating in my head a few months later matches but I noted to myself initially.  A few things that I liked about this book:
1) Caitlin's spunk.
2) The location--it was great to revisit Seattle for a while through this book.
3) While disturbing, I liked how dark this book was.
4) The ending.  While they had to go through a lot to get there and by no means were things wrapped in a pretty little bow, it was a promising end.

Time to write: 3:04

Book review: The Dead Will Tell

Title: The Dead Will Tell
Author: Linda Castillo
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Many years ago a terrible tragedy happened at the Hochstetler farm.  The deaths that happened went unsolved for many years.  One night years later Police Chief Kate Burkholder is called to an apparent suicide in her small town in Amish country.  The suicide turns out to be murder and when more people start dying, Kate has to figure out the link between all of them and go back to that tragedy so many nights ago before somebody else dies.

Review: As you know, I get backlogged on these reviews.  When I came upon this one, I couldn't remember what this book was about.  At all.  I suppose that I could have dropped my rating down to two stars, but it's not that it was bad, it just wasn't memorable.  But not all books can be memorable.  This is a good beach or vacation read.  It was your typical murder mystery story.  I liked that the main character was a woman and a Chief of Police at that.  She has relationship issues (what Chief of Police doesn't?).  Her boyfriend has his own baggage (what boyfriend of a Chief of Police who's also a state agent doesn't?).  The story was suspenseful and I didn't quite know where it was going.   It certainly painted an interesting image of the Amish.

Time to write: 5:40

Book Review: Station Eleven

Title: Station Eleven

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Twenty years ago, a flu pandemic decimated the world's population.  A troupe of musicians and actors known as The Traveling Symphony have dedicated themselves to keeping art and culture alive by touring around the area formerly known as Michigan.  This book bounces between the pre- and post-pandemic worlds and paints a vivid picture of both.

Review: I do love a good post-apocalypse book.  However, when I think of my own survival in a post-apocalypse world, I have concerns, mainly pharmaceutical related (real drugs, people, not recreational).  Forget any aromatase inhibitors.  I also have hypothyroidism.  I'm more worried about running out of my levothyroixine than my AIs.  So I know in the event of an apocalypse, I need to stockpile meds.  I was tempted to give this book five stars but didn't for a few reasons:

1. Time lapses:  There are no cars so people have to walk everywhere or take horses.  I get that.  But can we have a clearer distinction about time passed when you're walking in a large circle around Michigan?
2. Antagonist: There's a preacher that has formed a cult and is feared.  I thought he was going to play a larger role than he did.  I understand why he was mentioned but it felt a little anti-climatic. 
3. More character development: Some characters were well developed, others not so much.  And yet the others that weren't that developed had large pre-apocalypse parts but very small post-apocalypse parts.  So why introduce these characters at all?

I guess that was it.  

Time to write: 7:31

Book review: Friendship

Title: Friendship
Author: Emily Gould
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Bev and Amy have been best friends for years but as they approach 30, they're approaching a crossroads in their lives.  Amy's skated by with her luck, charm and family money.  Bev roams from one temp job to another, drowning in student debt.  When Bev finds out she's pregnant, their friendship is put to the test.

Review:  There's no way I'd ever buy all of these books that I read.  I LOVE THE LIBRARY.  The downside of the library is I often have to return the book before I actually review it.  So I almost always have to look the book up on Amazon to help me in compiling the summary (or characters' names or plot or whatever).  When I was looking up this book I noticed it had all sorts of accolades, even from the New York Times(!).  And yet I only gave it three stars.  Dearest blog readers: if you want NY Times-quality reviews, read the New York Times.  The book's fine fine, but I wouldn't say this was the top 10 book I've read this year.  Unless you're a 29 YO living in New York, in which case you'll probably like this book more than me.

Time to write: 5:22

Book review: The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Title: The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Author: Cynthia Hand

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Lex and her family have been a mess since her younger brother Tyler committed suicide.  Lex's mom spends a lot of time in bed and/or drinking and Lex has pushed her boyfriend and friends out of her life.  Lex is in therapy somewhat against her will and rolls her eyes at her therapist.  Lex starts to feel haunted by her brother's ghost, which forces her to face her own guilt and unresolved issues.   Heading to college next year, Lex needs to decide if she can leave her mom, who is now truly alone since her parents' divorce.

Review: I am lucky enough that I've never had somebody close to me commit suicide.  So I can't imagine the feelings that this would bring up and I hope that I never have to.  I read this more through the lens of a parent rather than Lex's point of view.  I can't imagine how difficult it would be to deal with losing a child or a sibling to suicide.  This was a pretty raw book.  I could appreciate Lex's reaction as well as her mom's reaction.  Why didn't I give it more stars?  Because it wasn't one of those books that I couldn't wait to pick up when I finally found time to read.

Time to write: way too long

Book Review: Dark Places

Title: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: To say that Libby Day's had a rough life would be an understatement.  Her two sisters and mom were killed in the famous "Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas."  Libby's brother was convicted for the murders, largely because of Libby's testimony.  Twenty-five years later Libby is broke and running out of ways to to profit from her infamous family and her troubled upbringing.  When Libby is approached by The Kill Club (a group obsessed with notorious crimes), she sees a way to continue to profit from her family's demise.  Her investigation uncovers long buried secrets that force her to face what really happened that day.

Review: For those that don't know, Gillian Flynn is the author of Gone Girl.  Dark Places is one of her earlier books.  If you read Gone Girl, you know how dark it is, and I'd been told that her other books were also dark.  I listened to this book on CD and I kept thinking, "huh, I don't find this book that dark.  I wonder what that says about me."  This was a great book.  It doesn't go into it specifically, but the amateur psychologist in me would say that Libby's trauma stunted her emotional development at the age of seven, when her family was killed.  You can feel sorry for her early losses, but trust me, she's no saint.  There's great buildup in this book to find out what really happened that night.

The main reason I didn't give this book the full five stars is I just didn't buy the explanation for the killing.  I couldn't suspend disbelief, it was all too..coincidental.  I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just leave it at that.

Time to write: 6:46

Book review: Inside the O'Briens

Title: Inside the O'Briens

Author: Lisa Genova

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: The O'Briens are born-and-bred Irish Catholics who live in Charlestown.  Patriarch Joe is a 44-year-old cop married to Rosie and a father of four.  When Joe is diagnosed with Huntington's Disease, his world and his family's world is changed forever.  As his family witnesses his deterioration as a result of his disease, his children grapple with whether they should get a genetic test that will identify if they carry the gene that will lead to their own Huntington's diagnosis later in life. Two of his kids want to know and have to deal with their test results.  Two others struggle with whether they want to know, and the not knowing leads to its own stresses.  In the meantime, Huntington's continues to take away Joe's ability to be a cop, husband and dad.

Review: I initially gave this book three stars, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.  As somebody that has potentially passed on the BRCA gene to her daughters, I am sympathetic to the guilt that Joe felt passing the gene for this disease on to his children.  Additionally, as somebody that inherited the BRCA gene from my mom, I am also sympathetic to not blaming a parent for passing something like this on.  However, let me state that passing along the Huntington's disease gene is far worse than passing on the BRCA gene.  Genova did a great job describing this disease (or at least I was convinced).

As somebody that wasn't born and bred within certain towns in Massachusetts (translation: "blue-collar", non-wealthy towns?  I'm trying not to insult friends that are born and bred in Massachusetts here), I'll never be a townie.  As a result, I don't think I'll ever truly understand townies.  I don't think the author is a townie.  As a result, I'd argue that she didn't really capture what it's like to be a townie.  I could be wrong--she could have nailed it.  But something about the way she created these characters seemed oversimplified.  That said, I liked the kids a lot.  I think it was more her depiction of Joe and his wife Rosie that sort of bugged and led to four stars over five. However, I LOVED the ending.

Time to write:  9:10

Book review: First Frost

Title: First Frost
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: October is always a strange time of year for the Waverly women.  It has to do with their strange apple tree that blooms with the first frost.  But this October in particular feels particularly strange.  The Waverly women are notorious in their town in North Carolina for possessing special gifts.   This October is a particularly difficult one for sisters Sydney and Claire, and Sydney's teenage daughter, Bay, all for different reasons.  Will their families survive this year's first frost?

Review: This book was perfectly pleasant.  And as I think of the next two reviews that I have to write about books that were much more intense than this, I sort of wish I had this as a palate cleanser between the two.  While this book was perfectly pleasant, I wouldn't say it was fantastic, thus the reason for the three stars.

When I finish a book I try to put the shell of the review together and at the very least indicate my initial rating.  I'm sticking with the three stars, although I'm tempted to go 3.5 to compromise between the me that first wrote three stars and the present me that's leaning towards four.   But I'm going to stick with my three stars.  If you're looking for something light, or a palate cleanser, this is a good choice.

Time to write: 4:11

Book review: Landline

Title: Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Georgie McCool's marriage to Neal is in bad shape.  A successful show runner, the TV pilot that she's been developing since college is finally getting picked up.  The problem?  It's a few days before Christmas.  And Georgie, Neal and their two daughters are supposed to head to Nebraska to visit Neal's family.  Georgie is forced to choose between family and work and she chooses work. Neal is pissed to say the least and takes the girls on his own to Nebraska.

Georgie ends up spending a lot of time at her mom's house and calls Neal at his mom's house when she cna't get ahold of him via his cell phone.  She quickly realizes that the Neal she's talking to is the Neal she knew when they first met.  Georgie has her future in her hands--would her and Neal have been better off if they had broken up?

Review: That's a long summary for me.  As somebody that struggles to balance work and family life, this book resonated with me a lot because I'm often pulled in both directions and I end up feeling like somebody is going to lose because I can't balance the two effectively.  And while Georgie and Neal's marriage isn't perfect, it has produced their two daughters, so even if Neal ends up leaving Georgie, that makes Georgie and Neal worth it, right?  But would their lives have been better if they hadn't gotten together?  I've always loved books like Sliding Doors and The Post Birthday World and while this isn't quite along the same lines, your mind sort of wanders to that place at times.

Time to write: 4:29

Book review: Sisterland

Title: Sisterland
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Kate and Violet, twin sisters, have known since they were little that they were different because of their "senses".  Kate has ignored her skills and has focused on a suburban life near St. Louis raising her kids with her husband.  Violet, the more eccentric of the sisters, has used her skills to make a living.  When Violet senses that a major earthquake is coming to St. Louis, the sisters are reunited and Kate is torn between shunning her sister and quietly wondering that Violet may be right.

Review: I read this book a few months ago but I'm behind on my reviews.  However, even when I'm behind I start the draft and put my rating in and then come back to it.  When I came upon this draft I couldn't remember what the book was about at first.  I knew it was about identical twin sisters but I couldn't recall any details beyond that.  When I reread the summary online I thought, "huh, only three stars?  Because this was considered to be one of the best novels of 2014."  However, I am always wary of those raves.  What can I say?  I'm a skeptic.  I thought about upping the rating to four stars but I can't really remember what happens in the end, so clearly it wasn't memorable enough for my terrible memory.  I guess this book was good enough?  I think I liked it, but the inability to remember why leaves me at three stars.

Time to write:4:11

Book review: Annihilation

Title: Annihilation
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Area X has been unreachable to most for a long time.  There have been eleven previous expeditions to Area X and many of them did not end well for one reason or another.  This book is about the twelfth expedition, lead by a psychologist.  She is accompanied by three other women: a biologist (the narrator), a surveyor and an anthropologist.  What secrets are these women hiding?  What will these women find?

Review: This book started off really creepy and is the first in a trilogy.  Despite the three star rating, I liked this book a lot.  However, I had some issues with the story development, which are difficult to share because I don't want to give away too much, so I'll try to be as vague as possible.  For one, I was disappointed by the lack of character depth for most of the characters, although you get a lot of the narrator's back story.  I like knowing what makes the characters tick.  Two, because the story focuses so much on the narrator, some of the creepiness disappeared for me.  Yet I'm still intrigued enough to read the next one. 

Time to write: 4:38

Title: The Girl on the Train

Title: The Girl on the Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Rachel commutes back and forth to London each day on the train. Her ride takes her past her old house where her ex-husband lives with his new wife and baby.  Rachel lost her job but rides the train anyways.  She also has a minor drinking problem.  Anna is the new wife and is tired of Rachel's drunk phone calls and late night stalking.

Rachel likes to make up stories about the people who live in the houses that are on the train line.  One woman in particular is Jess, who lives a few houses over from Rachel's old house. One day Rachel sees Jess with a man that isn't her husband.  These women's lives begin to intersect when Jess (real name, Megan) disappears.

Review: This was a great book.  I had my suspicions on certain characters but Rachel's alcoholism added a sad but great element to the story.  Rachel knew that there was more that met the eye to what was going on but she couldn't remember anything because of her blackouts.  None of these characters are what they seem, which makes the book so great.

Time to write: 4:04

Book review: The Paying Guests

Title: The Paying Guests
Author: Sarah Waters
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  After the war, times are tough for Mrs. Gray and her 26-year-old daughter Frances.  They take in boarders, Mr. and Mrs. Barber.  Frances and the Mrs. start up an affair.  The Mr. finds out.  Hilarity does not ensue from there.

Review:  Call me risk-averse, but no good can come from having an affair with your married boarder.   I listened to this book on CD and it was really, really long.  Sometimes when I'm listening to a book I wonder if my opinion of the book would have changed if I'd read it instead. I think I might have liked this one better if I'd read it.

There was some good anticipation around whether or not they were going to get away with killing Mr. Barber.  But then it really started to drag.  The trial could have been shortened. Besides being too long, one other thing that I didn't really like was the ending.  Without specifically giving it away, I just didn't buy it. I would have enjoyed hearing more about what happened to the two of them post-trial.

Time to write: N/A

Book review: The Circle

Title: The Circle
Author: Dave Eggers
Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Big Brother is good when it's positioned correctly.  Really, it's all about the marketing. When is a lack of privacy a good thing?  Well, it arguably controls people behavior.  Imagine how less corrupt our government would be if every conversation our politicians had was recorded.  But is a life with no privacy really a society that we want to be in?  Think of all the data that it would create!  And of course it's a good thing to share your thoughts on everything with the world.  Everybody wants to know everything about everybody else!  And people who don't agree, well...they're weird.

Review:  I've never read any of Eggers' work (at least that I can recall), but the name is prominent enough that I think he writes well-regarded books.  This book tackles our increasing lack of privacy as a result of our current data-driven world. The Circle is thinly disguised Google.

1984 is one of my favorite books of all time.  This felt like an update of sorts to 1984 but doesn't quite hit the mark. There is that sense of foreboding, and while I appreciate how those that don't agree with this lifestyle are treated, it goes on for too long.

Time to write review: 5 mins+

Book review: Some Luck

Title: Some Luck
Author: Jane Smiley
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary: Owning a farm is hard, no matter what year it is.  And kids have a funny way of having their own personalities.

Rating: I was intrigued by the premise of this book.  It has a One Day-esque feel to it in that it picks a day out of every year (although I realize that One Day is the same day every year), starting with 1920 and ending in the early 1950s.  Each chapter rotates through various family members and what's going in their heads in that particular day.  This book wasn't terrible, it just wasn't one that I really looked forward to picking up at the end of the day. It was pleasant enough, I suppose.  I don't think I've read other works by Smiley, so I can't speak to how this one compares to her other publications.  But all in all, not a lot of depth to the characters.

Time to write review: 4:01

Book review: Before I Go

Title: Before I Go
Author: Colleen Oakley
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Daisy Richmond is 27 and married to Jack, the love of her life.  In her early 20s she battled breast cancer and she's just found it's back. And this time it's terminal in a "6-months to live" terminal.  What's going to happen to Jack when she's gone?  Daisy wants to be sure that Jack is left in good hands after she dies, so she makes it her mission to find Jack a new wife before she goes.  Except that when Jack ends up getting close to a woman that Daisy perceives to be the perfect fit for Jack, Daisy worries that she's lost Jack even before she's actually passed away.

Review:  This is one of those books that when I picked it up from the library and the jacket I thought, "this might not be the best book for me."  But I loved it.  I'd call this sort of "heavy chick lit."  I mean, Daisy's terminal.  But there are funny parts too.  And Jack is a great guy, but terminal cancer can tax even the strongest of marriages.  I don't want to give the ending away, but did I mention her cancer is terminal?  It doesn't end well.  Make no mistake--this is a tearjerker of a book.  I realized it's been a while since I read a tearjerker.  They're pretty cathartic.  I finished this book last night and I was hoping that my sobbing wasn't waking up Aaron.  If you're in the mood for a tearjerker, check this one out.

Time spent on review: 3:39

Book Review: See How Small

Title: See How Small
Author: Scott Blackwood
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary: Three girls are killed brutally.  Many years later, this story checks in on the people that were involved or affected by their deaths.

Review: In another life perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more.  For some reason it just didn't hold my interest.  Perhaps it was the topic.  It's hard to think about three sisters dying and their mom having to go on without them, although the book switched point of views amongst several characters and didn't necessarily focus on the mom.  There was one interesting character, I think his name was Michael.  Sometimes it can be frustrating to read a book that doesn't tie up loose ends, but I generally like it.  However, I'd start a chapter and have idea who the character was and I'd have to go back.  This is probably more of a reflection on me than on the author, but again, it just didn't hold my interest.

Time to write: 5:01 minutes.

A new approach

Since I've started these reviews I've struggled with how to make these reviews unique and keep you readers interested.  I'm going to try a new approach--5 minute reviews.  I'm about 8 books behind, so clearly I'm spending time reading but not enough time reviewing.  I want to write these reviews, so I'm going to try a new approach--writing these reviews in 5 minutes or less.  We'll see how it goes.

If that doesn't work, then one or both of the cats will be taking over the reviews.

Book Review: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands

Title: Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Emily Shepard is a homeless teen living in Burlington, VT after her parents died in a catastrophic accident at the nuclear power plant where her parents worked and where they lived in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.  To make matters worse, there's speculation that Emily's dad caused the accident that caused the town to be abandoned.  Once her parents died and Emily fled her hometown Emily had to focus on surviving.  She's surviving, but it's a lonely existence.

Review:  I started this review over a month ago and still haven't written the summary.  So, this is going to be quick and dirty.  This book was sad.  Emily's in a tough spot--she's orphaned and knows the accident wasn't her dad's fault but can't prove it.  She runs away because she's afraid she'll become a pariah.  I can't fault her for that.  I liked this book and I liked the ending but it was just too sad.

Book Review: I Was Here

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  When Cody's best friend Meg kills herself, Cody is left to pick up the pieces and try and find answers.   Why would a girl that lit up a room kill herself?  Could something more sinister be at play?  Or will Cody have to deal with the guilt that her best friend killed herself and Cody really never noticed that anything was wrong?

Review: I don't think I was the target audience for this.  Cody's an admirable young woman--her mom isn't very hands on, her dad wasn't around growing up and she grew up quite poor.  Despite being very smart, she forgoes school and starts cleaning ouses after high school graduation.  Anyway, Cody's world is shattered when her best friend Meg kills herself.  Without Meg Cody feels lost, but her death opens Cody's eyes to the distance that was growing between the two of them.  I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I was 20 years younger.  There's some romance, of course, which is one of the reasons that I took away one of the stars.  I wasn't convinced that this was going to be a relationship that was going to last.

Time to write review: 6:30 (what can I say, I was distracted).

Book review: Reunion

Title: Reunion
Author:  Hannah Pittard
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  While she's on a plane, Kate gets a call that her father has died.  Kate's life is in turmoil.  For one, she doesn't even like her dad.  Another, her marriage is in shambles for various reasons, primarily because her husband has caught her cheating.  Also, she has no money because she's extremely in debt.  She heads home to Georgia at the urging of her brother and sister to say goodbye and perhaps deal with some demons.

Review: When I first started this book I thought, "I already read this book except it was called This is Where I Leave You.  I wanted to like this book but this book is no This is Where I Leave You.  And perhaps it's not a fair comparison, but the whole time I read this book that hung over me.  It's not quite as funny nor is it as poignant either.  Still, I could see Kristin Wiig starring in the film adaptation.  Wait for the movie.  Or read This is Where I Leave You.  Kate's dad didn't sound like a peach--Kate's mom was his first of several wives.  I could see why Kate's so angry with her dad.  As an only child I'm often fascinated by books that explore sibling dynamics.  This one just didn't do it for me.  But...it wasn't awful, thus the 3 stars.

Book review: Young God

Title:  Young God
Author:  Katherine Faw Morris
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Nikki is a determined 13-year-old girl who watches her mom die in the first pages of the book.  From that moment on she is on a mission to establish her presence in the world and protect what's hers.

Review:  I'm not sure if I didn't like this book because it was poorly written or because it was about a 13-year-old girl dealing with situations that no 13-year-old girl should have to deal with.  Despite some of the things Nikki did, she's a smart kid.  It was just sad that she felt she had to do some of the things she did.  She's clearly a survivor, it was just sad.  On the plus side, it was a really fast read.

The Lullaby of Polish Girls

Title:  The Lullaby of Polish Girls
Author: Dagmara
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Anna lives in Brooklyn with her Polish parents who emigrated to the States as political refugees when Anna was a little girl.  When Anna heads to Poland for the summer to visit her grandmother, she feels like she's discovered a missing piece of herself.  That summer she meets Justyna and Kamila and their friendship begins and evolves as the three of them grow up.

Review:  This book was short and quick to read, but it just didn't blow me away (especially not after reading The Boston Girl and Big Little Lies).  For one, the summary on Amazon calls these girls best friends.  I disagree that these girls are best friends.  I agree that Anna and Kamila seem to have a connection, but Justyna in particular isn't part of this friendship.  She doesn't even seem to really like Anna and Kamila.  Point two, the book gets better, but it has a slow start.  Three, I just didn't buy that these girls would stay in touch over the years.  I'm not saying that friends who drift apart can't come back together.  I just wasn't convinced it was going to happen for these three women.

Book review: Big Little Lies

Title: Big Little Lies
Author: Liane Moriarty
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  This story revolves around three friends who live in an affluent seaside town: Madeline, Celeste and Jane.  All three have children that recently started Kindergarten.  Jane, only 24, doesn't fit the profile of the other moms, but Madeline and Celeste take her under their winds.  At the kindergarten orientation, Jane's little boy Ziggy is accused of bullying a little girl.  This event divides the town into who sides with the mother of the little girl and who sides with Jane, Celeste and Madeline.  Meanwhile, Celeste and Madeline are dealing with their own challenges around family and husbands.  Things come to a head on the school's Trivia Night. when somebody dies.  Was it murder? Just an accident?

Review: I love Liane Moriarty's work, although I didn't realize until I finished this that this was her work.  In the interest of full disclosure, I listened to this book on CD and because Moriarty is an Australian author, it was read by somebody with an Australian accent.  That probably helped me like the book a little more, but I still really liked this book.  There's a great buildup to the night of the Trivia Night where the murder happens.  For some reason I thought at first it was a woman that had died but it wasn't.  I don't want to reveal too much, but this was the kind of work that I couldn't stop listening to but I started to dread the book ending.  Another awesome peace of work by Moriarty.

Book Review: Boston Girl

Title: Boston Girl
Author: Anita Diamant
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Addie Baum was born in 1900 to immigrant parents.  She grew up in the North End of Boston.  This story kicks off with Addie's granddaughter asking her, "How did you get to be the woman you are today"?  Which leads to Addie telling her story.

Review:  Wow.  I'll be the first to admit that I might be a little biased to read a book where the main character's name is Addie (which happens to be the name of one of my daughters for those of you who don't know that) and it takes place in Boston, but wow.  There are so many things to like about this book. For one, Addie is such an individual for a time when it wasn't easy to be a woman or an immigrant.  She wants things but her parents don't support her dreams.  There's a lot of sadness during this time period too, and while usually I like to see how characters really feel about pivotal events that shape who they are, in this instance I think the lack of this exploration works.  I think it's also the point--many people died for various reasons and when it happened, the family wasn't really allowed to mourn.  Great book!

Book review: Everything I Never Told You

Title: Everything I Never Told You
Author: Celeste Ng
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  The Lees are an interracial Chinese American family living in small town Ohio in the 1970s.  Marilyn and James  have complicated relationships with their three children--Nathan, Lydia and the overlooked baby, Hannah.  Lydia is her parents' favorite, but with this favoritism comes incredible pressure.  When her body is found in a lake, the tenuous strings that were holding the family together begin to strain and fall apart.

Review:  The perspective shifts from everybody in the family both before and after Lydia's death as each respective family member tries to process her absence.  Marilyn pushes Lydia to be successful in school so she can have the career that Marilyn never had.  James pushes Lydia to be popular.  Lydia is neither but she doesn't have the heart to tell her parents.  Nathan is heading to Harvard in the fall and Lydia is anxious that she's about to be abandoned and will have to deal with her oppressive parents on her own.  Her hopelessness leads to her suicide.

For some reason it has taken me a long time to write this review.  I thought about downgrading this from four stars to three but ultimately decided against it.  I think the reason it took me so long to write this review is this book tackles complicated topics--family dynamics, marital strife and wanting the best for our children but being blind to the fact that our children are not mini versions of ourselves.


This book was particularly heartbreaking to read as a parent.  Every parent wants their children to be successful, smart and have friends.  I'm dreading the moments in my girls' lives when they are disappointed or hurt.  As parents we try everything we can to shield them from that and yet we know we can't.  And it can be hard to remember that our children are not us.  They will have their own experiences and their own responses to those experiences.  Hopefully we can provide a home that is slightly less dysfunctional than this one, but every family has problems.  Perhaps this is the reason why it took me so long to write this review. Not necessarily because it was a *bad* book (it wasn't), but because it was so serious and layered.  As a result, a serious and layered review.

Book Review: Catching Air

Title: Catching Air
Author: Sarah Pekkanan
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Kira Danner is looking for a new start.  Frustrated and unhappy with her law career, she happily quits when Rand, her husband Peter's brother, asks if they want to join them in Vermont to start a B&B with Rand and his wife Alyssa.  Peter and Rand aren't very close, so the request is surprising, but this might be what the brothers need to start over.  The B&B gets busy fast, so they end up hiring Dawn, a mysterious stranger with secrets. 

Review:  This book is fluff in a good way, but not a great way.  At the risk of giving the ending away, what I liked is I wasn't 100% positive that everything was going to work out in the end.  I'm disappointed to say that it did.  Bor-ing.  It is wrapped up in a pretty little bow and that just isn't very interesting.

Book review: The Painter

Title: The Painter
Author: Peter Heller
Rating: DNF (Did not finish)

Summary:  Jim Stegnar is a successful painter with some anger issues and a passion for fly fishing.  He's also mourning the death of his daughter.  He escaped to Colorado after the last time he lost his temper in New Mexico.  He lost his temper AGAIN and is now back in New Mexico.  Blah blah blah.

Review:  Was this a book about a painter?  Or a fly fisherman?  Or was it about a tortured soul who couldn't keep his temper in check and was being sought out by the "associates" of the guy he killed?  I haven't the faintest idea nor did I care so I gave up.

Book review: Astonish Me

Title: Astonish Me

Author: Maggie Shipstead

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary: Joan is a ballet dancer who helps an acclaimed Russian ballet dancer defect many years ago.  Joan retires from ballet when she becomes pregnant and subsequently moves to California with her husband and young son.  When Joan's son is revealed to be an very talented dancer himself, secrets from the past are revealed.

Review:   While I've never danced and I hesitate to push my girls into dancing, I can't help but be fascinated by ballet dancers and the world in which they live.    I admit, I didn't see where this book was going initially.  One of the advantages and disadvantages of writing a review a few weeks after I finish a book is my perspective changes on it.  Sometimes this perspective changes for the positive, other times for the negative.  In this case, I think it's positive.  But I loved the insight into the world of ballet.  I have no idea if it was accurate or not, but it was still interesting.  

Book review: Wise Men

Title: Wise Men
Author: Stuart Nadler
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Arthur Wise's career as an attorney has taken off in ways he could have only dreamed about.  He uses some of his newfound wealth to buy a family beach house in a town called BluePoint, located on the far end of Cape Cod.  The property comes with handyman Lem Dawson.  Lem's niece lives nearby and Arthur's son Hilly falls in love with her.  The problem?  Lem and his niece are black, which doesn't sit well with Arthur.  Their lives change forever one fateful night.

Review:  It's hard to write reviews for books that I finished a few weeks ago.  When I think back on this book, nothing remarkable comes to mind.  As rich kids go, Hilly is tolerable.  He shuns his father and his wealth.  I think "obsessed" is too strong a word, but I initially found Hilly's strong preoccupation with Savannah (Lem's niece) to be unconvincing.  I liked how it turned out though.