Book review: The Royal We

Title:  The Royal We

Author: Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Format: ebook

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  American Bex Porter's life is changed forever when she goes overseas to Oxford for school and meets Nick, the heir to the British Throne.  Years later, on the eve of their wedding, Bex reflects on their love story and if past transgressions can be forgiven in time for one of the most anticipated events of the century.

Review:  This book, written by the Fug Girls, is pure, amazing fluff.  Like light, airy cotton candy.  If you ever wondered what Princess Kate's life was like as she met Prince William, this is the escape for you.  Sure, Kate is made an American and Pippa is a twin instead of a younger sister, but we all know what this book is about.  If anything, it makes Kate a little more interesting.  Kate is such a perfect princess, sometimes I want to see her break out of her shell a bit.

Time to write: 2:29

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 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: 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: 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.

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: The Headmaster's Wife

Title: The Headmaster's Wife
Author: Thomas Christopher Greene
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: Arthur Winthrop is the headmaster at the prestigious Lancaster School in Vermont.  His dad and grandfather were also headmasters at Lancaster.  This book opens with Arthur being arrested for wandering naked in Central Park.  The story unfolds to review the events that led Arthur to his arrest.

Review:  This book was good but as more time passes between my finishing it and writing this review, it isn't really staying with me.  Thus the reason for three vs. four stars.  It starts off with Arthur having an affair with a student.  This first part of the book is probably the best part as one realizes that what's happening might not be all that appears, which further adds to the intrigue.  The book progresses to provide more insight and provides a point of view from his wife.  It's a fast read and it was good, but it wasn't one of those books that I looked forward to reading at the end of the night.  Nor was it a book that I would stay up late to keep reading.

Book review: This is Where I Leave You

Title: This is Where I Leave You
Author: Jonathan Tropper
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Judd's father just died.  He also recently found his wife cheating on him with his boss.  Judd's not having a great time with life right now.  When he gets back home for his dad's funeral, his mom tells Judd and his three siblings (Wendy, Paul, and Phillip) that their (previously unreligious) dad's dying wish was for them to sit Shiva.  Judd can't remember the last time the entire family was together for an entire week.  Some hilarity ensues.

Review: This book has been made into a movie and stars Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda, just to name a few. I read this book just after having surgery and it was a terrible book to read because I was laughing so hard and it really, really hurt to laugh.  There are a lot of sad aspects to the book (each kid is dealing with his or her own issues), but it feels real and that's what makes it good.  Plus I love books about family drama.  This book made me want to check out Tropper's other work.

Book review: The Vacationers

Title: The Vacationers
Author: Emma Straub
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: The Post family heads from Manhattan to Mallorca, Spain for a 2-week vacation.  The intent of the trip was multi-faceted: spend time together as a family before Sylvia headed off to college, celebrate Franny and Jim's 35th wedding anniversary and to see their son that lives in Florida.  They're also joined by Franny's best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence. But it's going to be a long two weeks.  Jim was just let go from his job for having an affair with a much younger employee.  Franny and Jim's son is a bit under water and needs to ask his folks for money.  Lawrence and Charles are trying to adopt a baby.

Rating:  This book will not change your life but it is a good summer read. There isn't a lot of depth to any of the characters, but the two weeks the family spends together passes quickly enough.  So why not a higher rating? It was good, not great.  Everything just turned out too perfectly.  I know that's the point with a summer read, but I guess I don't like books that end neatly.  Sometimes it's hard to get into too many specifics without giving away the book, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.