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