What Alice Forgot

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book -- it really made me think about my own marriage and life.  How would I look at my current self if I was ten years younger?  How many petty things in my own life would look petty from the outside looking in?



I literally couldn't put it down and finished it in one day.  I didn't love how there were three different dialogs going on --  Alice's story and then letters from her sister to her psychiatrist and another letter writer in the form of her quaisi-grandmother.  Not too sure those were necessary.  But as I said, best book ever!



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Unbroken

This was a book club book and I don't know why I bother to read book club books, since pretty much no one else does, but I always figure the point and purpose of a book club is to read books that you wouldn't choose yourself.  And I most definitely wouldn't have chosen this one!

It was pretty deadly, even though it was very informative.  But it felt like a long newspaper article (long as in over 400 pages!) about Louis Zamperini who was a fast runner! LOL  He went to the Olympics when he was 15 and was a sure bet for the Gold four years later.  Except there was a war.  A big war!@  And he ended up in a plane in charge of launching bombs.  But then he is in a tub of a jet and it crashes into the Pacific, and for 42 days he and two others are just floating in this life raft.  I can tell you pretty much everything about this ... but really all you care is that he made it.  Right?  Well, he does, right into Japanese territory where he is thrown into a POW camp and dreams about the good life of starvation and sun stroke on the raft!  For two years he is held prisoner and tortured.  Let me tell you, it was torturous to read!

If you are interested in little tidbits of WWII that you might not have learned in class, then this is the book for you!

Silver Girl

This is a pure pure beach read. Except that I read it in my bed with the rain pouring in buckets outside. In other words, a PERFECT day to read an entire book! Which is what I did, cover to cover. The premise is basically a couple (like Bernie Madoff and his wife) and the husband is arrested for running a ponzi scheme and has bilked hundreds of people of millions of dollars and his wife Meredith is sort of left in the ruins. Everyone hates her because they can't imagine she didn't know about it (and she says she didn't!) and she is also under investigation herself by the Feds. But the story is how did she get to that point (of living with a perfect stranger who not only was a crook, but also had a six-year affair with their interior decorator) and not have a clue? When is not noticing anything okay?

Good read, I would highly recommend it!

HALLIE: This book definitely kept me reading but I was very irritated with the main character for prob 80% of the book. I think it was the other characters who kept me around becuase really I don't feel bad for you that you had no concept of money and then get screwed cause your husbands an ass. But rather than speak all negative about that I was happy with how the book ended and it did amuse me!

Learning to Swim

This was an interesting book about a woman who is on a ferry goign to visit her boyfriend and out of the corner of her eye sees something being tossed off of a passing ferry in the opposite direction. Without giving it much thought she believes it was a child and she dives into the water. After managing to swim the child ashore in freezing temps and keeping it alive she realizes that no commotion has been made about this missing kid and that there is the potential that someone purposely tried to drown a little boy. Fast forward and she has met with the father and found out that his wife and kid disappeared 6 months ago and due to ransom demands he couldn't go to the police, blah blah blah.
The good part about the story is that the kid ends up happy but the surprise outcome of the book was expected and overall the story line is just one that's been done many many times I feel. I did enjoy the read though.

Blue Nude

This was an interesting book about an artist model (Merav), one who poses for artists in classes and stuff, (what do you call them) and an artist teacher. The model comes into his class one day and immediately they both feel this instant connection that both intrigues and frightens them as the model is Jewish and grew up never being allowed to forget about the horrors of the "camps" and the teacher is clearly the perfect specimen of an Aryan German (Danzig). There's some more that happens but ultimately the story is about an artist finding his muse again after years of frustration and zero results. Both th e teacher and model end the story happy but it's that kind of bittersweet end. Quick read but I enjoyed it. I also LOVED the names of the characters.

Does the Noise in my Head Bother You?

I absolutely devoured this book too (as I did the Hunger Games series.)  I was actually laughing out loud in many places ... and while it is not written in a linear manner and apparently the critics hated it (everytime I tell someone I am reading it they retort that it got horrible reviews)   I loved it.  The constant references to Sunapee are fun and you never know who you are going to relate to.  For me, it was quite a surprise that I could actually relate to a rock 'n roll star.  Not the drugs, sex or even the rock 'n roll -- but he has that quirky brain that I do that thinks in rhymes and makes up words and believes there is more to this world than meets the eye.  But the similarities end there, of course.  He has had a wild life, but in the end, he just wants what everyone else does.  Love and peace. 

I think we all felt as though we saw a new Steven Tyler on American Idol -- I just think that is the real him.  The rock star is not all who he is.  I would highly recommend reading it.

Mockingjay

LISA: And then it ends and it totally bums you out!!! Sooooooooo good!

HALLIE: So sad when it ends but it pretty much ended as I had decided it would. It's rather depressing how it's left but then again how can it really end up any other way. Once tragedy and horror has occurred to you, it's there and you have to learn how to live it.

Catching Fire

LISA: Book two of the Hunger Game series. You will fly through it!

HALLIE: Again another fantastic book! A little frustrating as you feel as hopeless as the main character at times but overall great! I ended this and started the third one immediately! my favorite thing about this trilogy is the books pick up directly where they left off!

Hunger Games

LISA: Well, I devoured this. It was a book club book and at first I wasn't all that excited to read it. But as soon as I started, I was hooked. There are three books and I read one right after the other. A really incredibly believable premise and one you won't be able to put down. I guarantee it! Don't start if you have a life!

HALLIE: This book was FANTASTIC!!! Seriously Mom is right above, once you start it is impossible to put down! Luckily i was on a 8 hour bus trip so I was able to just completely sink into it. Consuming, heart-wrenching, thrilling, invigorating this book has everything someone could want in a story. I found myself crying/laughing/sobbing all at the same time!!! It is also incredible to actually think of the ideas that this book puts out about a civilization way in the future that is completely controlled and powerless to stop what is happening... or is it?

This Life Is In Your Hands

I am not sure how I felt about this book.  It was written by Melissa Coleman and purportedly she is writing about her life as a homesteader from birth to about 7 years of age, maybe a little older.  So let's face it, her memories of that time have to be pretty sketchy and probably not all that coherent.  And she loses her sister as well, and one would have to believe that was pretty traumatic.

It is ultimately the story of her parents, Sue and Eliot Coleman, who meet at a now defunct college in Franconia, N.H. and decide that they want to live "the good life."  Scott and Helen Nearing had written several books of that title, and they were located on the coast of Maine.  Many "hippies" during the 70's would write letters to the Nearings and ask if they could apprentice for them.  In return for their hard work they were able to learn organic farming techniques as well as preserving food for the brutal Maine winters.  The apprentices, for the most part, lived in tents.  But if the Nearings really liked you, they sold you a chunk of land for $33 an acre and you could homestead on it.  Eliot Coleman is actually still at that farm today, but with a third wife.  All the couples of the 70s broke up -- apparently poverty and hard work are not all that romantic.  Yeah.  I guess not.  Melissa's mother was also depressed and had to spend every minute doing something -- milking goats, preparing food, canning food or working in the garden.  So obviously she wasn't all that happy!  And her father had some thyroid disease that made his body create adrenaline so he could never stop.  Freaky people!

Would I recommend it?  No, not really.  Not a huge page turner.