Black Out

LISA: As with many writers, I am noticing the formula that Lisa Unger uses in her body of work. But despite that (I am currently listening to Jodi Picoult's House Rules in the car, and am finding myself groaning at the predictability of where her story (the only story she writes) is going!) I thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed this as much as the first one. I have downloaded the rest of her books and will continue to read her as long as she sucks me in with her suspenseful story lines!

HALLIE: I think it's funny that you liked this one Mom cause I seriously could not wait for it to finish! The main woman annoyed the shit out of me cause it was like she knew what she needed to do but would rather stay in this bubble of ignorance which would have been fine if she was happy but she WASN'T! she was waiting there having these horrible visions and headaches and so many other things and yet wouldn't just step up and deal with it! I know that she was mentally ill and had a few close to her people lying and setting her up but seriously I would never not stand by my ground enough to believe that I had completely made something up in my mind that seemed SO real. This is actually funny that i'm writing this now after reading Mom's personal blog post today where she did in fact make something up and confuse reality with her fictional stories. BUT she's a writer and I can understand that cause when she gets into a book you really couldn't tear her away from the computer. Overall the story kept me reading which is what you want but only because I just needed to know the ending as it wasn't a hugely obvious one but more one of those really effed up occurrences that you don't want to believe is possible of happening. Ultimately it ends up happy!

Beautiful Lies

Do not read this book if you want to DO anything else for a few days! Wow. It is 11:30 now, I started reading at about 7:00. I never moved the ENTIRE time ... I started it a few days ago, but it got really, really hot and heavy in the middle and there was no way I was putting it down until I figured it out.

Absolute MUST read!

TOMESAN: I too LOVED this book! It was a great recommendation! FIRST book ever on my kindle!!!

HALLIE: This book was an awesome, captivating read. Once I started it I never wanted to stop. From the actual story to the characters to good writing and a knack for truly describing the situations I enjoyed every bit of it. Currently reading the next one. Go Ridley!

Bird In Hand

Wow, I am not sure how I feel about this book. It is an odd twist in that it is kind of sort of about two couples, and yet, not really. One woman is in a car accident where a small boy is killed. It's not really her fault, but it gets in the way (for a short time) of her husband and her best friend getting together and declaring their true love. It skips back and forth between when they were all younger and to the present, and the ending is sort of ... oh well, you marry and then all this shit happens and all along he really loved her and she really loved him and so it is.

Okay.

Charlie St. Cloud

I always like to read the book first when a movie is based off of it. I feel like it's typically soooo much better. This was no disappointment. Very sweet love story with a happy ending. I flew through the book, prob took me 4 hours if that. I will be seeing the movie and can see it being fairly similar to the book. THere weren't too many crazy parts that i would think they'd cut out which is nice.

Dismantled

Very very odd book. I randomly picked it up for cheap at borders and it was a decent read but basically just a very predictable murder mystery. And the end is SO random. Didn't really fall in love with any of the characters or anything. Overall just rather so so....

You Had Me At Goodbye

Yet another quick beach read for the Vineyard. This one takes place in Oak Bluffs and two people end up having to share the same teeny cottage due to unforeseen circumstances (aren't they always!) Of course they hate each other ... why do they always have to HATE each other? I mean, seriously. But I enjoyed it, a quick read and while predictable, still not awful!

Fragile: A Novel

Lisa

I enjoyed this book very much ... it was well written and suspenseful and I really liked the characters. It has small town living going on, a teenage son who doesn't like his mother, a marriage with secrets and when a girl disappears -- all these things come together to a boiling point ... I highly recommend it! In fact, I am going to look up more Lisa Unger books!

Hallie

I did not particularly enjoy this book. I wasn't able to relate to any of the characters other than one and though I liked when it was in her point of view I just didn't feel as if I had real concern for anybody in the story. Even the girl who disappeared didn't make me feel much, though I was very happy that she got found and her kidnapper caught. Overall just wasn't a great read.

Trust Fund Babies

I read this one before I read that stupid other one (Third Time's a Charm) and this one was fine. A perfect beach read, and it was partially set on the Vineyard, so since I was on the Vineyard, that was even better! It was about three relatives, I think two are sisters and one is a cousin, or maybe they are all cousins -- anyway, they get this enormous trust fund from their grandfather, and then they all go about using it in different ways. One woman just spends it, another hordes it and the middle on spends it on AIDS children! Obviously a diverse group; but then their money manager loses all the money and disappears and they are all left penniless (of course except for the one who has horded it all these years and kept it a big bad secret from her struggling vineyard owning Italian husband!) Ahh, the intrigue!

The Stuff That Never Happened

This was a FABULOUS read! I enjoyed it start to finish. The title refers to a history that is built within the minds of people (as in he said, she said) that actually even affects the rests of their lives. I don't want to give too much away, because I could tell you the whole story ... really a MUST read, so get your kindle fixed Hallie!!!

Three Times A Charm

This was kind of a silly book that I decided to read because I was still on the Vineyard and wanted beach reads. It is completely predictable following the story line of woman hates man and man is cute, charming, etc. BLECH! Stupid. Don't waste your time!

Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is written by the same author of Eat, Pray, Love and all of the reviews I read on it were "do not read this book if you expect it to be anything like Eat, Pray, Love." Well personally, I think it sucks when you read another book by the same author and it is the same! I am thinking Jodi Picoult here! So I went into reading this with no expectations on way or another.

What I do believe is that the Universe was speaking to these two in a big way. It was telling them to wake up, stop being such babies, and get legally married and get over yourself. But the universe is sneaky, and really pulled a good one! I mean, seriously, Eat, Pray, Love was a great book, but if we were all as selfish as Elizabeth Gilbert, there would be no children in the world, there would be no families and we'd be wandering third world countries looking for ourselves.

Now, why would I call her selfish? Doesn't she have the same right as anyone else to find herself? I guess my problem with her is that it is almost borderline whining ... I mean, she wrote an entire book quaking at the thought of getting married to the man she loved most in the world. Because she got ONE divorce, she could not fathom entering into the institution ever again. She blamed how DIFFICULT her divorce was on her inability to be happy -- and yet, she wasn't happy inside the marriage either. What we have here is not a situation of MARRIAGE being the problem, but HER being the problem! She never actually figures this out either!

Anyway, I enjoyed it because she does a lot of research about marriage, and like anything, it's not what you perceive it to be. It does not have roots in christianity ... in fact, the powers that be would have liked to eradicate it altogether because it allows two people to be intimate, therefore rendering them free from the powers that be. Interesting stuff.

I would totally recommend reading it.