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