Beach Readers

2012-02-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a middle-aged woman who has spent her life following her husband from job to job, town to town, and believes that they have settled into their last house, which she is remodeling (albeit slowly) to suit her tastes. But her husband, Jack, is a one-time football star who had to quit due to a blown knee, and due to taking drugs, loses his reputation as well. So his main goal is to get back to the top again; and when he starts to see that happening, he loses her. Because she doesn't want to follow him again. She doesn't remember the "good old days" quite the same way he does. He believes that since he was always faithful, he has upheld his end of the bargain. But she remembers him drinking and socializing while she was at home with two small children. In other words, now that the daughters have gone to college, she is ready to find herself again. And he thinks she is just going to keep following.

They separate and she decides to see if she can rekindle her passion for painting. And Jack follows her dream job to New York and ... discovers what she already knew. The good old days weren't all that great.

Great read!

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2012-02-16T09:33:00.001-08:00

Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this story about a small town that has a feral child walk into its midst. It received five stars because I couldn't put it down! I wanted to know what had happened to the girl called Alice, and thought the relationship between the psychiatrist who has her own set of issues and the girl was very believable. I did have a few eye rolls with the romance, which was quick and based on they just knew they were meant for each other. In other words, very little development, just assumption. But it's not a romance, it is a story about sisters who had their own perspective of their childhoods and what type of adults they turned into; and what type of adults they became due to the child.

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2012-02-08T07:29:00.001-08:00

So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had a hard time putting this book down. I related to the main character, Claire, in that she is in her mid 40's and trying to reinvent herself. Her daughter has left on poor terms, her parents are getting older and her father has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. But she thinks she is all set -- she has met Rick and he's going to change everything. They are going to move to Arizona (from NJ) and while he golfs she can take all the pictures she wants. But then her daughter returns, pregnant, and her father takes a turn for the worse, and her mother chooses to move into a retirement home so that she won't be a burden to her daughter. But that move sucks all hope from her and she begins to fade. It was such a wonderful layering of generations and their problems, with no pat answers. Just the hope that they will somehow figure it out. So they all go Cape Cod, where Claire is taking a photography workshop, and she leaves her parents and daughter to figure things out while at the same time not completely abandoning them. It was real. The fiancee is quite obviously ill-suited as he wants nothing to do with her family, and then there is of course THE GUY ... but not overly done. All in all I completely enjoyed this book and was sad to see it end.

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2012-02-08T07:19:00.001-08:00

All She Ever Wanted by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As I continue with my Barbara Freethy-athon, she once again provides a tasty novel that delivers the story with the guy who isn't right for whatever reason -- sworn again to mindless models and never love -- but the story line was good, with characters who used met in college coming together when someone writes a novel about a tragedy that took place that split them all up until now. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the only reason it doesn't have five stars is because of the red-haired heroine and the I can never love hero -- just a little see through!

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2012-02-03T09:15:00.001-08:00

Getting Rid Of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good read; quite enjoyable, she gets the guy type novel!

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2012-02-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book caused a stir and at first I wasn't going to bother reading it, because I hate hyped up books like that. But then I thought why not, so I read it. My first impressions are that the whole Chinese/American way of doing things is a bit contrived. Really all the author knows for sure is the way she was brought up, and the way she brought up her children. She didn't interview hundreds, or even ten other Chinese families, and the same with American, to see how their methods stacked up. So that turned me off right from the get-go -- the generalization that there is this distinct line between Chinese (or Asian) and American parenting. Of course there are cultural differences, but the way she raised her daughters was ridiculous in my view. She was obsessed with them playing their instruments above and beyond anything normal, and while certainly some of her ideas made sense (she would say we American mom's just cave in to our children and don't FORCE them to do the things that they should) she just took it to a level beyond extreme. She had what most of us get -- the firstborn who will generally take on their parent's dreams for them, and the second child, who says **** you to such a notion. Nothing Chinese/American there! Just the way it is.

She admits towards the end that she has no capacity to have fun, and personally I found that to be just sad. S A D. I think what is most interesting is that this would be considered a book that would get published! Not that it is poorly written, not at all. But the subject matter could apply to ANY psychotic mother who is obsessed with pushing her children beyond normal boundaries. I've seen American moms who fit this profile. This is NOT a Chinese story.

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2012-02-03T09:01:00.001-08:00

Home Front by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved, loved loves this book, which kept me up until 1:00 a.m. sobbing. What I especially found intriguing is that the author is not a soldier, has no military background whatsoever, but did a really great job at this character's portrayal. I loved the characters ... the relationships between them all were all very real. I especially thought it was interesting that I related to her husband Michael's feeling about the war in Iraq and how he never really considered his wife's military background (before they were married) and then her continued involvement in it via the National Guard, as anything more than her hobby. It comes out of nowhere for both of them when she is called to active duty and they both have to come to terms with what that means. Michael has been feeling sorry for himself since his father's death and finds Jo's attempts at making him feel better through chin up platitudes to be worthless. He goes so far as to say he doesn't love her any more, and the entire time she is gone, their marriage is at risk. When she returns after being shot down, it is a long road back.

Good, good GREAT read!

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2012-02-03T08:55:00.001-08:00

Sugar Nation: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Deadliest Habit And The Simple Way To Beat It by Jeff O'Connell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I expected this book to be more about what you could do about this Sugar Nation of ours -- not an expose on the author's personal experiences (and other than saying that what he does to control it only specifically works for him because he has a unique type of situation, he doesn't go any further than that in terms of how others in this sugar nation world can deal with it). It was also severely bogged down in facts, studies, blah blah blah, that was just way over my head in terms of what I could even grasp.

And the author is highly critical of the medical establishment and the ADA and anything really that is being done for diabetics in our Sugar Nation -- and it was weird that that didn't appeal to me because I agreed with it. But I guess it was the lack of well, do this, or at the very least try this. I am not sure what the message was at all!

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2012-02-03T08:46:00.001-08:00

The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This gets five stars because it really drew me in. I could relate to Joanna in that her family has left her alone full time, and while it is normal for your children to leave, to have your husband gone most of the time isn't any fun. And she keeps thinking to herself, you can leave. So she actually does, and as anyone knows, something like that takes a lot of courage. And she goes to the last place where she thought she might be happy and finds a job and begins to build a new life for herself without feeling super sorry for herself. I liked her strength. In the meantime, we get the perspective of her husband Paul, who is at first just downright annoyed that she is "doing this," and then later, when he loses his job, discovers he didn't really like himself all that much either. The ending wasn't trite either.

It was funny, I had the Nate Berkus show on while I was in the kitchen and this author was on the show wanting to have her office redone. And something about her struck me, and I downloaded her book. Definitely a good read.

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2012-02-03T08:39:00.001-08:00

The Sweetest Thing by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would finish one of her books and download another. That is certainly a good sign and why I have given them all four stars. But they are not necessarily books that I would recommend to people; which is kind of sad! I think she needs to add a little depth to her characters and forego all this never going to love a woman/man thing. Gets old.

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2012-02-03T08:35:00.001-08:00

Ryan's Return by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am giving all of Freethy's books four stars because they kept me intrigued enough to keep reading. She is very formulaic...the woman all have red hair, for example, the man always has some silly reason why he is never going to love again (no way, no how) but she is also a good story teller and manages to draw you in despite the fact you know EXACTLY what is going to happen, in a happily ever after kind of way!

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2012-02-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

Golden Lies by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first book by this author, and I thought it was a good page turner. I mean, it has the usual male character who WILL NEVER LOVE ANY WOMAN EVER ... and that gets a little old period, but the story itself is well thought out and do we ever really think that the man isn't going to fall madly, deeply, truly in love with the imperfect woman? No, of course not. I will admit right from the get-go that I continued to read her because her books were cheap. Yes, that is true.

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2012-01-15T14:58:00.001-08:00

The Great Disruption by Paul Gilding

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Usually with these end of the world type books they are just depressing and you lose all hope and want to curl up in bed and die.

But this book is different -- it is an optimistic view of the end of the world! I truly believe that as a society we will be able to get through our failing economy, etc. etc. etc. I do. I also believe that we have reached a tipping point and SOMEthing will happen, whatever it will be. I am not sure when it will be (and neither do any of the experts) but I suppose we are there now. It's not going to be a cataclysmic event (like the movie, 2012) just a series of failures that we will be able to deal with. I am sure of it!

I would recommend this book if you have a feeling that we're on a path of change.

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2012-01-15T14:52:00.001-08:00

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At last, a five star read! At first I didn't like how it jumped around from century to century -- but then it started to get into a groove and I loved the symmetry of it. It was really good. Loved it!

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2012-01-15T14:49:00.001-08:00

The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After I finished Welcome to Temptation, I needed more of the same. Just a good, mindless read to while away the hours. This didn't disappoint. A little bit of a stretch -- some guys asks this girl to pretend she is his wife and of course they fall madly in love with each other. But far too quickly for my tastes! Too predictable and not enough conflict. But fine.

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2012-01-15T14:44:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually had to try to read this book three times -- the first two didn't take and I couldn't get past the first chapter. For some reason, I found it confusing ... just couldn't get a feel for the sisters. But I decided to just go with it -- and I am not really sure that I ever connected with who they were. But it turned into a good read -- for a Sunday afternoon! The dumb title didn't help its cause, and the premise of the story was a little stretched, but like I said, bad girl comes to town and falls in love with the rich guy on the hill. And the mean mother. We've read it before. Sometimes it's fun to remember.

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2012-01-15T14:41:00.001-08:00

Jane Was Here by Sarah Kernochan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book -- at first I had no idea what was going on -- and even when I did realize what was, I wasn't too sure I liked it! But that was the end and not much I could do about it at that point! Did I like it? Yes, it definitely kept me intrigued. All of the characters were so completely unloveable it was almost painful. I mean, that's who they were, and I guess it was because of that reason they were able to be embodied by ... well, I don't want to give it away! I kept hoping for their redemption, but alas, it was not found in this realm!

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2012-01-03T09:36:00.001-08:00

Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not bad ... a little dash of Hunger Games mixed in with The Girl Who Woke Up. The hardest thing for me was trying to picture what the adaptation process really did to the Jaguar Man. There was very little (if any) description of this, though he had paws and a feline like face? I don't know, I had a hard time envisioning what he looked like and that was a bit annoying. And of course there was no explanation on what turned him, other than a dash of jaguar and a pinch of anaconda and a smidge of some bird DNA -- but how was it administered? I guess I like to understand the woo woo stuff going on!

There is a second book on the horizon (of course, no decent modern author would dare put out one book!) and I suppose I will read it. Though I don't know. The fact it wasn't available immediately might mean I won't look for it later!

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Crossing Oceans

2012-01-02T10:19:00.001-08:00

Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. This was an Amazon 99 cent deal, and a perfectly good read, if not smashing. It was certainly not a new tale. It was fine!

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Deadly Little Secret

2012-01-01T13:12:00.001-08:00

Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the final "cheap" book I am downloading from Amazon! First off, it is a total rip-off of Twilight -- with such a lack of originality I couldn't believe I kept reading it. Then when it ended abruptly, I realized, oh, I see, the author doesn't want to give it all away in ONE book. Yeah, not falling for it. No way, no how. It was not well written (above and beyond the fact that it was just copying another authors basic premise) and it must be geared toward younger readers because it was fairly juvenile. Good lord.

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Middlesex

2012-01-01T13:04:00.001-08:00

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I more read this book then enjoyed it! I didn't like the way the story was told, even though the content matter SHOULD have been fantastic. But it just never felt as though there was a definitive reason for the main character to choose the sex he chose, and for the truth of the matter, I didn't really care! I tried. I kept reading.

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A Discovery of Witches

2011-11-30T10:06:00.001-08:00

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved it! It's a bit wacky and kind of a mishmash of Twilight (vampires) and Gabaldon Outlander series (time travel) and the addition of witchcraft ... but I couldn't put it down. Which was tough, because it's a pretty serious book! It is also clearly a book number one of who knows how many, and I wish that I had started reading it after the next one had already come out! But alas, I did not, and I can't snap my fingers and bring it forth, nor can I suck your blood. Because I am not a witch or a vampire!

I don't know why, but these vampire tales suck me right in (he he). I can't for the life of me fathom why a cold, heartless, bloodsucking paleface is appealing, but Matthew does cartwheels over Edward (Twilight series) in terms of personality. While Edward is stuck repeating high school for all eternity, Matthew has been around since the beginning of time and has been friends with the best of them. The first book leaves us with Diana and Matthew timewalking back in time to get away from all of the daemons, witches and vampires that are after them. But before that, they fell in love, and who doesn't love a good love story? They still haven't had sex yet (vampires are clearly not fueled by testosterone, which might be why they are so appealing to us warmbloods. They just want to cuddle!) but they have certainly gotten close!

Can't wait for the next one. No, seriously, I can't wait.

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Water Witches

2011-11-30T09:56:00.001-08:00

Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the story and the premise and found it to be a very enjoyable read. However, his use of short paragraphs that jump from one what would be a chapter in a normal book, to another small paragraph I found a bit annoying.

The clouds outside are an indication of rain, and yet, it hasn't rained in days. If only it would rain.

He drove his car into the driveway....alas, I can't even give an example because my brain doesn't work that way! Which is why it was hard for me to have to kind of kick myself ... ooops, we are no longer at the wedding, we are now three months later, even if we are on the middle of the same page as the wedding!

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To Be Sung Underwater

2011-11-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

This book enticed me by the name and it ended up being a fairly good read though defintely heartwrenching with the ending. It's about a summer romance between a back country Nebraska guy and a young 18 year old girl and though they have a summer of love and would comtemplate marriage once she goes off to college two separate lives occurred. Of course 20 years down the road she realizes she isn't happy in her marriage and she can't stop thinking about the Nebraska guy, Will, and calls him up to see how he is doing. She finds out that he has spent most of his life being a complete alcoholic, not a mean one, but is now slowly dying with liver disease and all the associated things that come from nonstop drinking. she ends up going out to visit him and they have a lovely time before a very surprising event occurs! I did enjoy the book but it is a very hard ending to take in and I had just watched a movie with a very similar gut-wrenching ending so I think that sort of skewed my perception. I would still suggest it though!

All Over the Map

2011-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

This was a nice fun read. the book is mainly about the female main character who's career as a writer allows her to travel to multiple places around the world and write about different topics that interest or amuse her. We enter the story right around her 40th birthday where she has recently just gotten divorced and is trying to figure out where her life should go now that she is husbandless, no children, and not even a house to call her own. WE travel to multiple spots around the world with her and though the writing and description of the places she visits and food she eats is very fun to read her character herself seemed to drag. I understand how experiences such as divorce and getting older are unsettling but alot of the book was her focusing on just that and it seemed sort of whiny. Overall she ends up buying a cute little home in Mexico and becoming one of those amazing independent woman which is a great ending!

Good read, the experiences and good parts of the book far outweigh the slow progress of the evolving woman! I would def suggest it!

A Discovery of Witches

2011-11-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

This was an INCREDIBLE read!!! I absolutely devoured it as fast as I possibly could! The storyline includes vampires, witches, deamons, etc but is set in a lovely England setting where the two main characters are widely recognized historians and lots of old books and libraries. The romance that ensues between the main character Diana who is a witch and a vampire, Matthew, is thrilling and exciting! They have many obstacles to pass and of course the crazy other world things is a huge part of it but all of the characters were so fun to read about and empathize with not too mention that you are on the seat of your pants the whole time waiting to see what is going to happen. I can't wait for the sequel due out in Summer 2012!!!! READ THIS NOW!

When she Woke

2011-11-15T09:52:00.001-08:00

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a pure good read with a slight hint of The Hunger Games. I gobbled it up. The premise is some undetermined date in the future when women are penalized when having abortions by being injected with a virus that turns their skin red. They become "Reds," which means to the world that they killed a baby. This is a serious crime in a time when the U.S. population has been greatly reduced by the "scourge," a sexually transmitted disease that renders females fertile (if it doesn't kill them).

The father of the aborted fetus is a handsome and charismatic preacher who actually has a backbone, eventually.

READ IT!!!

HALLIE: I started and finished this book all in one day! It completely sucks you in and the main character is such a great heroine! Standing up for her aborted fetus's father because it would ruin his life to give his name, gaining extra punishment years for that fact and then discovering that a man's love isn't really all it's cracked up to be. The book goes from incredibly strong and heartwrenching scenes one after another that just makes you think how is this girl EVER going to make it?!? but make it she does and I would hope that a sequel would be written! def read it.

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Gone To Green

2011-11-15T09:47:00.001-08:00

Gone to Green by Judy Christie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was another cheap book that I didn't really research before shelling out the ninety nine cents. It was perfectly fine, it was just another Christian-based theme that came out of nowhere! (I mean, if you intentionally seek out christian fiction, that is one thing. But the constant praying to God, asking God for all the answers, having him speak to you ... it's just not what I am looking for. So I read it, because it did have a plot line outside of the God line, but I wouldn't read any more.)

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In the Garden of Beasts

2011-11-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it ... but I have always been very interested in the holocaust and the events leading up to it, so this was a different perspective and where at first I thought it was going to have more of a story element to it; once I knew for sure that it would not, I was able to read it for what it is. Which is a piecing together of various bits of research and history and journals and interviews.

A lot of it is astonishing in that during such a crucial time in history a college professor with no experience whatsoever was sent to Berlin as ambassador to the United States. But then again, that didn't really surprise me. None of it did.

One of my greatest questions about the holocaust was why would the Jewish people all stand around in great masses of thousands of people with only a handful of soldiers training guns on them and not revolt? What I hadn't realized was that the discrimination against them had been so absolute for their entire lives that almost somewhere in the back of their heads they must have come to believe that they were as inferior as the German aryan race said they were.

I was also not surprised that our American government was well apprised of what Hitler was doing, but once again, it was all about money: Our Great American Banks had lent money to Germany and they wanted it back. And they weren't going to piss anyone off, not even a mass murderer, if there was even the smallest teeniest chance that that money would make its way back into their fat cat pockets. It would make me sick if it had surprised me. But it didn't.

Do we learn from history? I think not.

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11/22/63

2011-11-14T06:47:00.001-08:00

11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What did I think? I think I lost a weekend and there is no way to go back in time to get it because I don't know where the rabbit hole is! But would I? Would I change having read this book? No way!

I was a huge Stephen King fan in high school and gobbled up all of his books. Until ... they went from cool weird to over-the-top weird. Suddenly coke machines were your worst enemy and there seemed to be a less emotional element mixed with the macabre (think Pet Cematary) and it was just a bunch of words filling up pages talking about near nonsense. I stopped following King. Plain and simple. But over the years I have meandered up his path from time to time ... and found The Dome was along those lines of his original work. But this? This was FANTABULOUS! Right from the get-go the premise draws you in. Who wouldn't want to know what the world would be like if John F. Kennedy hadn't been shot? But this is Stephen King, and he's not taking you to bed for good without a boatload of foreplay. I was snagged from page one, and I too was greatly concerned about what happens to the future if you mess up the past!

I guess it couldn't end any other way ... and I was a little confused as to the events that supposedly would take place if Kennedy hadn't died ... but I don't want to say anymore. You must read this book and you must understand you will have no other desire to do anything else until it is finished!!

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Dead and Berried

2011-11-03T08:36:00.001-07:00

Dead and Berried by Karen MacInerney

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, it was very poorly written in that there were so many mistakes (things repeated for example) and every single action of making a brownie was printed verbatim, etc. I thought I would go nuts. Unfortunately I pretty much have to finish a book when I start it. This was one of the cheapo books from Amazon and I thought it might be okay. No. There was never any common sense applied -- there was a murderer after this girl and she thought nothing of putting herself in harms way over and over. Why would you want to read about someone that stupid? In addition, her cheating fiancee returns to woo her back, but he never pays any attention to her -- and yet, she still considers his offer of marriage. Huh? I should really give this one star -- but here is the thing -- despite its really awful everything, it was readable, and I finished it wondering what was going to happen! Ya gotta give the author credit for that. (But take a hint, edit your books before you publish them!)

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Don't say a Word

2011-10-22T10:18:00.001-07:00

Don't Say A Word by Barbara Freethy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but I found it a little predictable (despite the attempts to make it unpredictable) and I think the characters were a little undeveloped -- though I am not sure what I mean by that. Maybe that they didn't seem real?

It definitely kept me reading though -- and that in itself is what it's all about in the end!

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The Book Thief

2011-10-17T12:27:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed reading this book! It aims to be a young adult book so the writing is easy to understand and you can fly through it but be careful because it is a long book and took some time to get through. The storyline is very sweet adn endearing. It is different in that it is told n the point of view of "Death" who is watching how WWII unfolds in a small German town. A young girl is sent there to a foster family and it goes on to show how a German family dealt with the rules and lifestyle Hitler required. I loved loved loved it!

Here Today, Gone to Maui

2011-10-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

This was not a good read.... basically a guy goes missing and it ends up that he did die but they thought he faked his own death because he was pretending to be someone else, and the two girlfriends (they did not initially know about each other) are just bad representations of females. The main character who then ends up falling for the real guy who her boyfriend was pretending to be but overall it's just a boring sappy far too predictable story. I do not suggest it.

The Rose Garden

2011-10-17T09:58:00.001-07:00

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just LOVED this book, a total guilty pleasure. Pure enjoyment -- it sucked me in right from the start and I had to force myself to go to bed at 2:00 a.m. but I picked it right back up as soon as I could. I have no idea why I am such a sucker for these time travel romances (with very little romance I might add) but I love 'em! I was a little confused at the end trying to figure out how the character who had traveled back from the future fit in -- I have a hard time grasping the concept as soooo many generations are skipped. But I didn't worry about it too much!

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The Best of Me

2011-10-15T11:43:00.001-07:00

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ahh, this was classic Nicholas Sparks. Totally enjoyable, predictably sappy and easy to see where it was going to end. But sometimes that is exactly the book you need to read -- especially on a blowsy Saturday morning after a really good party!

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The Most Dangerous Thing

2011-10-14T05:55:00.001-07:00

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, though I kept waiting for things to happen that didn't! I expected certain characters to get together, and they did not. I thought something else had happened in the past, that did not! So it certainly wasn't predictable.

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Winter Sea

2011-10-14T05:46:00.001-07:00

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book earns five stars from me if it completely sucks me in and I can't stop reading -- and then I feel morose and as though the world has ended when I turn the last page.

This one absolutely did those things. At first I was a little irritated that there were two stories in the book -- but then I became anxious to find out what was going to happen in both sagas. As a writer myself, I completely understand that the characters in a book you are writing are real ... but this took it to another level. VERY fun premise.

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The Arrivals

2011-10-11T08:29:00.001-07:00

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very enjoyable read. Ginny and William are suddenly overrun by their three children, who all run into major crisis situations at the same time and run home. Lillian has her three year old daughter and three month old son with her, and has to give up her old room to her brother Stephen, whose wife goes into premature labor while on a quick visit and ends up bedridden for the next few months. And then Rachel decides instead of dealing with the fact she can no longer afford her Manhattan apartment since her boyfriend moved out, and that she might just not love her job, runs home too and camps out in her old bedroom with her 3-year-old niece. I love Ginny's point of view -- where she feels a bit overwhelmed with it all, what she really loves is that they NEED her, and have expressed that by running home. Though that of course makes her wonder, did she mess everyone up? It is a very sweet book.

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The Winters in Bloom

2011-10-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable read, with believable characters.

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Code Talker

2011-09-23T08:26:00.001-07:00

Code Talker by Chester Nez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had read earlier versions of this story as it is written by my sister-in-law, and the beginning of the book seemed to have a lot of the flavor of that first version, though that was written as a novel as opposed to a memoir. I think it took me quite a few chapters to start to get the feel of the newer version -- though I don't know why that would make a difference! It is definitely a well-polished book with almost excruciating attention to detail. I say excruciating not to be critical, but I don't particularly like a lot of description, and this book definitely pays a lot of attention to surroundings and sounds, etc. The story itself is very interesting and I became much more engaged after the battles and the back and forth to Chester's childhood. It is, I can be certain, a meticulously documented story, and it was an interesting contrast to another book I recently read about an American soldier who was captured by the Japanese on the Pacific islands. It was very nice to read that Chester believed (from what he witnessed) that the Americans treated the Japanese prisoners very well. (The Japanese did not, or at least from this one particular soldier's experience.)

The use of the Navajo language as a code in war almost seems too easy for the U.S. government to ever employ. I would imagine it was fought over and poo poohed by many high ranking officials and was therefore kept a huge secret much longer than it ever would have been if it was THEIR idea. The fact that the original coding system (shackle) took almost four hours to decode whereas the Navajo code took minutes, would definitely change the outcome of a war. How could it not? I think it is a great tragedy that these Navajo solders were not recognized much, much earlier for their amazing contributions. (I don't believe it was because they wanted to keep it in the vault in case they wanted to use it again. I think it was one of those things that could only be employed once ... because as was implied in the book, there were other Navajos recognizing their language and making innocent comments.)

Anyway, it is an amazing tribute to Chester Nez and his fellow code talkers.

HALLIE: Chester Nez's story is beautiful and sad and has all the components that a good story should have. It was amazing to hear about how they lived and breathed this code in order to completely change the whole outcome of the war. I personally enjoyed Chester's own life story. This was a great read and even though it was somewhat drawn out in parts I most certainly enjoyed it.

Alison Wonderland

2011-09-21T05:22:00.001-07:00

Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Stupid. Hard to follow, had not point or purpose, still not sure where the baby came from and why and I was just glad it wasn't any longer than it was. I only read it because it was a book club book, but it was AWFUL.

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Sing You Home

2011-09-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Here is what I think. I should NEVER read another Jodi Picoult book again in my life! But it is my love of her first books that keep luring me back; hoping that she has changed her formula just a little bit. I happened to "read" this one as an audiobook, and she has taken up songwriting on top of her regular writing. Oh MY GAWD ... the singing was like listening to fingernails on a blackboard. Same melody, different words with a woman singing who didn't actually have a fabulous voice. Painful. At least if you read it you can just scan the lyrics and not have to endure the music. The story itself was not that engaging either. For one thing, it was hard to imagine a straight woman going through years of infertility that ended up with a stillbirth and shortly after that her husband leaving her, only to fall completely in love with a woman, despite never having even the slightest thought of being a lesbian, and then whammo, marrying that woman after five months. Just silliness.

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Love In the Asylum

2011-09-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Love in the Asylum: A Novel by Lisa Carey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book ... even though the characters were so messed up. But they were real and there were so many perspectives to draw from. I was bummed when it ended because I wanted to see the characters evolve from the troubled individuals that they were. There is a hint that they may have, but no promise.

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This Organic Life

2011-09-01T13:59:00.001-07:00

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started her other book first....which follows this story, and I was intrigued enough by that one to read this one before I finished that one. They are written in the same flavor, both of them enjoyable to me because eating local and gardening are becoming more and more important to me as time goes on. This one has recipes for the produce she reaps from her garden and I was sure to bookmark those. She also spurned me on to freeze fresh veggies from the garden because I can't tell you how many times I have thrown away fresh produce from my garden or CSA. Today I froze two meals worth of fresh green beans that I couldn't have possibly made myself eat! Baby steps. When she talks about what it feels like to walk into a grocery store I could totally relate...it is the exact same for me....being surrounded by bad food is suffocating. And wrong. I also ordered several books that she mentioned on gardening.

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Heat Wave

2011-08-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

This was a great book about a woman whose husband dies and she is left with two little girls and a life that is completely unknown. She hasn't been working, she's living out on Nantucket in her husbands family house with her in-laws nearby. Overall the whole situation is just one of complete loss and she has to find her way out of it all. Luckily she does and she finds a great guy as well! I couldn't put this book down and truly loved each and everyone of the characters. Also thrown in there is some great female friendship and just living life for what makes you happy. I would definitely reccommed this!

Home Again

2011-08-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

Home Again by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quite predictable and you never really got to know the characters all that much. The entire story was based on a teenaged love affair that happened over a few months but basically ruined the characters lives. I mean, come on. We all had our teenaged love affairs. Sure, this one ended up in a pregnancy and then later a 15 year old daughter, or however old she was. Anyway, it just never clicked for me. I kept waiting to care about ANY of the characters, but it never happened.

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Escape

2011-08-18T07:52:00.001-07:00

Escape by Barbara Delinsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it but there were some irritants. I had no problem with her stalking the coyotes -- but I have coyotes in my backyard and they don't just hang around when you approach. They run. Fast. So that was just an eye roller for me, everytime she went to connect with herself by staring into the golden eyes of the coyote. Yeah, not gonna happen.

The second was it was based in a fictional town in N.H. and the characters were given the backwoods accent that would have been completely easy to leave out. Because there really aren't all that many people in New Hampshire who speak that way. I know, because I live in a non-fictional town in the backwoods of N.H. and we use our R's.

And thirdly, there is constant reference to when she had been in this place 10 years ago. Like, that the town would not forgive her for leaving. Or that she would be recognized, etc. She was in the town for a summer 10 years prior. Anyone who lives in N.H. knows that summer is exactly six weeks. I find it highly unlikely that she would have made this huge, lasting impression on a town in that amount of time. And there was constant reference to her sleeping in the garden shed. Why? The inn had not been owned by her friend's family, so why would they be in the shed? It was like Delinsky needed to create these connections that were not necessary and in my mind detracted from the story.

Which, as I said, I liked. Just not a five-star novel. And I feel I am being a bit generous giving it four!!!!

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The Last Time I was Me

2011-08-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

The Last Time I Was Me by Cathy Lamb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I stayed up most of last night reading this book; so that certainly says it drew me in. I did get a little annoyed with her smart mouth. I mean, it was so incredibly inappropriate that it was beyond even being humorous. I did like it, though it was a bit hard to believe that if she had been an accomplice in a murder, that it wouldn't just be so easy to sweep under the rug.

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Best Staged Plans

2011-08-16T10:22:00.001-07:00

Best Staged Plans by Claire Cook

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was cute. A good quick read.

HALLIE: This was a fun quick read. I think I was interested more in the staging process and how she found everything for the hotel rather than the story but overall it kept me engaged and reading. A good story about women coming out on the top per the usual!

Amaryllis in Blueberry

2011-08-09T08:22:00.001-07:00

Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My niece recommended this book to me while we were vacationing and I didn't immediately click with it. When you are sitting on the beach, you really just want a mindless read. But as soon as I got home, I started reading it again, and was quickly drawn in. The story is very similar to Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, and at first that sort of turned me off. But as I was drawn into it more and more, I started to see it for the book it was. It has many layers that are peeled back slowly, with the last revelation showing up on the last page.

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Breaking Point

2011-08-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

Breaking Point by Pamela Clare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I desperately needed a beach read and this popped up in recommendations. I didn't realize it was a series, but then found out that didn't really matter. It was a perfect beach read and fairly well written. Not sure I would pick up on the series because of it; but it fit the bill!

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HALLIE: I raced through this book! definitely a great beach/smut read! Funniest thing was I met found out one of my friends brother is a US Marshall!!!

The Last Anniversary

2011-08-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I really think is that it is impossible to top What Alice Forgot. I am not really sure that this one delivers a satisfactory conclusion, for when it ended I was like, really? We get to guess what happens to Sophie's love life? I could have done that and not read the book at all!!! I enjoyed it, but it might be a stretch at four stars.

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Three Wishes

2011-07-29T06:22:00.001-07:00

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was cute, a good beach read about triplets and their grown up lives with all the messiness that entails with the underlying message that life goes on, whether or not you want it to.

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Night Road

2011-07-29T06:17:00.000-07:00

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book certainly was timely for me as I am the mother of teenagers and believe (falsely I suppose) that I have given them all the tools to handle drinking and driving responsibly. It was the type of book that sticks in your head as a warning, but it also was a good story with real characters and a believable plot line. I would recommend it.

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State of Wonder

2011-07-24T06:51:00.001-07:00

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good book -- but not the type that you can't put down. I found it enjoyable, but more like an old friend that you can instantly catch up with. It took me a few days to read this and it was easy to fall right back into it. I liked the subject matter but I was kind of bummed about the end.

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To Be Sung Underwater

2011-07-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I liked it! I pretty much read it cover to cover because I had to know how it turned out. I felt a little disappointed at the ending -- but then again, only because it wasn't happily ever after, but realistic. But it was thoroughly enjoyable (despite some words I had to look up, and I have a decent vocabulary!) and I would highly recommend it. I read about it yesterday in Oprah magazine, started reading the sample, moved on to the book, put it down to live life, but then returned and read it pretty much all night long! It was cool because the full moon was reflected in my iPad as I lay in bed!!! Then I finished it up this morning.

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the perks of being a wallflower

2011-07-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

I pretty much raced through this book... a story written in letters of a young boy very shy, self conscious, awkward young boy coming through his teenage years. It is written surprisingly well and as you sympathize with this poor kid over the hard parts you also get to feel those pure moments of joy felt when something went right and that was your whole world! It was a decent read but not something I was really in the mood for so the reading may not have been thorough.

Seeing Me Naked

2011-07-07T09:10:00.001-07:00

Seeing Me Naked by Liza Palmer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After coming off two really good reads in a row, this book was like the rebound boyfriend -- it never really had a chance! It was definitely entertaining, and I definitely enjoyed it. But it wasn't "all that and more." Elisabeth Page has sort of just been living her life through work as a pastry chef at a chi chi French L.A. restaurant. Her family is comprised of a famous author father and a possibly even more famous author brother, and they show their love for each other by trying to cut each other down. She comes from a privileged background and she sleeps with and is in love with a childhood friend who has commitment issues and is a bit of a jerk due to the fact that his mommy never loved him enough. Yeah, I know. Elisabeth falls in love with the guy from the wrong side of the tracks and has to come to terms with showing her feelings to him. It was okay.

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What Alice Forgot

2011-06-27T13:50:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-06-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-02T15:35:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-02T15:34:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Two Kisses for Maddy

2011-05-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

I came across Matt Logelin a couple of years ago via another blog I follow -- and there was absolutely NO reason that I would have followed him other than his words were strangely compelling. He had lost his wife a day after his daughter Maddy was born, and he had started a blog prior to that to keep family and friends updated on their progress. His wife Liz was on strict bedrest and then eventually in the hospital the last two weeks before giving birth, so he would put on updates on the blog. And then when his wife died and he was left with a tiny infant on his own, he continued to blog and came up with a huge following. It was not unusual for him to get three to 400 or more responses to a blog post. All these women came out of the woodwork to offer him advice, support and in many cases, just an ear. In a few short years he had a book deal and he wrote this book. I knew the story, but decided to get the book anyway -- and it was a tear jerker for sure. I am serious, I could only read a chapter at a time before I would just be a mess, sobbing. I think it hit a lot of people like that, as I read in the blog.

I would strongly recommend it -- it is just a human story, as human as it gets, really.

Skipping a Beat

2011-05-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

This was a book club book and it didn't get very good reviews from everyone who read it -- and I didn't actually end up reading it until a day or so before book club. Everyone kept saying that they cried through it, and I had just finished another book that had really made me sob, so I wasn't in a hurry for a repeat sadfest. But this wasn't really sad at all -- just odd. I mean, it wasn't terrible, really, just seemed to lack in compassion. I would say it is okay, if you are in need of a decent book, then go for it. But there are definitely better ones!

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

2011-05-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, I will start off with I love Rob Lowe! I mean, he is my age and I grew up watching him in all those sappy, romantic movies and well, he is a hottie! But there is more to this man than just his hot looks! He can write! I enjoyed every bit of this story -- and I think you will too!

I See You Everywhere

2011-04-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this reading this book but I still cannot decide if I actually liked it or not! And i'm writing this a week after I finished it! The book is about two sisters who have trouble all their lives connecting with each other and enjoying being near each other. The older sister, Louisa, is the more reserved one who has the real jobs and is never very good with men and always feels slightly shorted by her younger sister Clem. Clem is the "slut" who has numerous jobs saving animals and working in many desolated areas but always manages to have some guy on the side and enjoys her free life. Even with all of their disconnect they are who each other calls when something rough happens and they flex between loving being each other and then hating and not speaking for long periods of time! Though they are the main characters there are a number of supporting characters as well such as a very awesome great aunt and a mother who loves Clem more. Overall the story has not timeline or major point, it just floats around between the two sister's points of view and though you are intrigued and want to continue reading there is no ending point or anything.
Then almost as if the author just didn't know how to end the story she throws in this insane twist! Completely unexpected and I'm not so sure I actually believe this would happen but it also suggests that all of teh circling and disconnect that Glass threads throughout the book is actually a motivating factor for the final ending and that perhaps there are wrongs that can't be righted no matter how much is tried.
Overall I would suggest reading this book if you want a good thought provoking read. I certainly did enjoy it as I read it. Minus the ending!

Fair Game

2011-04-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

"How a top CIA Agent was betrayed by her own Government"

This book is a true story about Valerie Plame Wilson, an undercover CIA agent for many years, whose job and position gets outed in the press by higher up government officials. The book details her experiences dealing with this situation. It's interesting because her husband was a very public figure who spoke his mind about all sorts of political situations. The whole thing came to a rise when her husband spoke out about the Iraq war and how there was no evidence that he had discovered proving that Iraq had or was making weapons of mass destruction. Basically the White House did not like having this in the press as they wanted to invade Iraq and thus starts years of destroying Valerie and her husbands reputation as well as her career because once she is outed she can't do most of her job anymore.

The story itself was rather hard to understand as she was legally obligated to submit the story to the CIA to ensure no classified information was presented and this basically led to them blacking out up to 25% of her total book. She decided to refute this by printing the whole story and showing just how much was actually redacted. This left a story with missing parts of sentences and whole chapters blacked out. There was also a lot of political name dropping which unless you are very tuned in to politics just makes for a confusing who is this guy? have we already heard about him? blah blah blah. understood that this is included becuase that was her job and life knowing all these names and people but it is certainly rather dry and confusing to read!

I was mainly horrified by how little evidence there was to promote invading Iraq and how extreme the lengths were that the White House and upper government officials went to distort the facts and stories to the public so that everyone would be supportive of a war. It makes me want to go out and research more and yet it makes me so frustrated that we have a government ruling us that has become so powerful that a small number of people can make major decisions and just hide or lie real facts if anyone opposes. Almost makes you think that even if the end of the world did come around it might be a good thing so that mankind can start from page 1 again!

The Lace Reader

2011-03-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

This was a different type of book, focused mainly on a family of women who are known around town as "crazy!" It is set in Salem so not only do you have the unique abilities of this family in lace reading, but you have the witch background and a religous zealot group called the Calvanists. As you read the story I found myself to be very confused as to what was happening most of the time, but the story does a good job in wrapping itself up at the end so that you're left with all answers instead of all the questions that filter throughout the book. Whether you will like those answers or not I am not so sure. I was not a huge fan of how they twisted around, but it did make sense when I went back and thought through the different events. I also thought it was very cool that Barry outlined the general guidelines as to how to read lace and also how lace was made. Nothing too technical of course but it did keep me interested to get to a new chapter.

While I'm Falling

2011-03-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

This book is about a college age girl who is a RA in the dorms as well as trying to get the grades to achieve med school and failing horribly. While all this goes on her family is falling apart, her mother becomes homeless, a few additional unfrotunate occurences happen and basically you just think wow this girl has a shit life. But above the slightly feeling sorry for the girl and her homeless mom you just kind of think wow this girl isn't standing up for herself or doing anything specific to change the circumstances. Over all I guess I just read it and ended reading it feeling very blah. Moriarty has much better books out there.

The Glass Room

2011-03-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Sunday! I found this book in the suggestion list while downloading another book and decided to check it out. As soon as I began the sample, I knew I was going to read it. I downloaded it at 8:00 this morning and finished it at 8:00 tonight! I didn't do much else today other than eat. GOOD read! Don't you just love a book that can suck you up for an entire day? It is based in Czhechoslovakia before World War II, when Victor and Liesl, young and newly married, want to have a modern house. An up and rising architect, somewhat taken with the beautiful Liesl, designs a crazy modern house that has a glass room. This becomes the backdrop of the novel, as Victor and their family are forced to leave as he is a Jew, and we all know how they fared in those Hitleresque times -- and then the story continues with what happens to the house, and also what happens to them. It is good! Good Good Good!

The Things We do for Love

2011-03-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

This was good -- about a woman who thought she was going to be a mother but just couldn't make it happen. Not able to get pregnant and running into troubles with adoption, she and her husband divorce. She returns home to help run the family restaurant, where she encounters a young pregnant girl who needs help. Hmmmm, maybe not what you are thinking! Good read!

The Lake of Dreams

2011-03-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent book. Written by the same author as The Memory Keeper's Daughter (when the doctor father decides that when one of his twin daughters is born a mongoloid, he tells his wife that she died and then he tells his nurse to dispose of her in an institution.) It is another wonderful story and I HIGHLY recommend it!!

The Husband Trap

2011-03-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

LISA: Okay, as you can see by the schmaltzy cover, this is a bit out of my usual line of reading. But Amazon was offering discounts on romance novels, and well, I am always a sucker for a discounted romance! The premise is that there are twins -- and it is set in the late 1800's when being a woman basically sucked and you got bupkus. The twins are completely opposite; one is selfish and vain and the other is nerdish and wears glasses (so therefore despite being the spitting image of the beautiful one, she is considered not so much.) Anyway, the pretty twin Janette is going to marry some duke or earl, handsome as all get out, of course, but she has also been screwing around, which as we all know was JUST NOT DONE! She wants to travel and her husband to be drops a bomb the night before the wedding that they will not be able to travel abroad for their honeymoon right away because he has some troubles on one of his estates. She pouts, she gets pissy, then she convinces her twin Violet to take her place. And so Violet, who is not outgoing at all, has to pretend to be the social vixen her sister is. Except her husband really doesn't want that either -- so in the end, it all works out, as these things will. These things being discounted romances!!!

HALLIE: Pretty much summed up above. I think i read this is about 4 hours but definitely enjoyed it! Wish the whiny I'm sooo horrible cause I duped this wonderful man and now my life is ruined since he found out part was shorter but overall it was a nice beach read! Totally romance story!

The Kept Man

2011-03-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is about a woman whose husband has been in a coma for six years. He was an artist and he fell off a ladder on top of having a brain anueyrism. Anyway, she has plenty of money and just kind of hangs out in her apartment all day. On Wednesdays she takes a cab out to the nursing home where her husband is, and spends the day in bed with him. Remember, he is comatose, and has been for six years. Then her washing machine breaks, and so one day she has to venture out to a laundromat. There she meets three men who are stay-at-home husbands (only one has a baby) and they become her new link to life. Keep in mind they are pretty much losers (with the exception of the father) who are just leeching off their wives money. And one of them actually has her in his sights ... wealthy kinda widow. But it is the jumpstart to her realization that it is time to pull the plug. I quite enjoyed it, I must say. And so I will. Say!

Sliver of Truth

2011-03-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

LISA: Okay, so I started reading this and was confused, because it started with saying basically you have either read about me before, or you haven't. Had I? This is the continuation of Beautiful Lies, which was a good book, but I must have breezed through it quickly, because I ended up re-reading it before I read this one, because well, I don't know. I had the time!!! Anyway, both are good reads and now I am done with Lisa Unger for a while, because she is a bit formulaic.

HALLIE: I agree with Lisa that Unger can be very formulaic but I do have to say if you want to choose just a few this and the Beautiful Lies before it are definetly worth the wkend you will spend reading them nonstop. I will say that the ending of the thrilling part in this story made me slightly frustrated only because Unger played up the annoying attributes of the main character, Ridley. The overall ending though is very nice and wraps everything up with a great bow. awesome awesome read!

Die For You

2011-03-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

LISA: Isabel's husband disappears one day. There are bad guys left and right and lots of people dying -- but she needs to know WHY did her husband leave her? He's really just a schmuck loser who came from a Prague orphanage and managed to find his way with his brother to the U.S. There his brother hooks up with the Albanian mafia and he decides to go to college. And he marries Isabel and they live happily ever after. Right? Not so much! It is a good read though, if not a little bit of the are you serious, type, because she even goes to Prague, after the FBI and the CIA have gotten involved, to find this wonderful hubby of hers. And then he tries to kill her. Oh, but he did love her, that was true, he just had to disappear, all that murder and mayhem. Ahem!!!

HALLIE: Ugh, this book didn't do much for me. I knew how it was going to end basically as soon as it began and the entire story was this woman goign to these insane and dangerous situations. So much so that you just sit there thinking really? I definetly liked the other Unger books better, but overall she has the same story over and over again.

Pictures of You

2011-02-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

I am not sure how I feel about this book! It was entertaining enough, but the premise was a bit of a stretch. An unhappy woman leaves the Cape when she discovers her husband is cheating on her and is having a baby. Three hours from home outside New York City, she strikes and kills a woman who is in the middle of the road in front of her car in the dense fog. Now, that woman she has killed is also from the Cape (quite likely, right?) and her surviving son and husband are naturally the ones that Irene wants. And lo and behold, they just live six blocks away. The boy has asthma and that plays into the story A LOT, and they act as though asthma is killing him every day. And it doesn't end happy! No, don't read this book, it just irritated me! LOL

Caribou Island

2011-02-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

This was being reviewed in People Magazine and it looked interesting, so I downloaded a sample. Liked the sample and downloaded the book at about 10:30 last night. Stayed up until 1:30 and forced myself to sleep, woke up and started reading it again. I finished it this evening. And I must say, HOW exciting to read a book in a day versus weeks. I'd forgotten, after the tomes I have been reading, that short books even existed!

As for the book, well, talk about DEPRESSING! Geesh. Obviously it held my attention, but the ending was horrid and I had to keep reading to see how it ended! Kind of a gyp. Would I recommend it? You know, I think I would. It is about a couple who have retired. They live in Alaska and the husband Jim wants to build a log cabin on Caribou Island and live there. The story is about him and his wife Irene actually building the cabin and realizing that they absolutely, positively despise each other. The other characters in the book are their two grown children and it delves briefly into their pretty much tragically despondent lives. Nothing about this story makes me want to move to Alaska, believe me!!!

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

2011-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

All I can say is I went through this trilogy like wildfire! I ended up being stuck in that horrid spot of reading late, late into the night and realizing that in order to finish, you will have to welcome in the dawn. I managed to force myself to put it down at 2:00 a.m. and then woke up and grabbed it to finish at 7:00 a.m. (Not sure I gained anything by sleeping!) This last book just turns into a whirlwind of answers -- as all the loose ends are tied up one by one. MUST READ!

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2011-01-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

I am on a roll with this series! I just finished it this morning and hated how it just adruptly ended with no reasonable closure! So I did what anyone would do and I instantly downloaded the next in the series and continued reading!!! Thus far, I am enjoying that immensely as well. With the exception of having trouble getting into the first half of the first book, I have loved this series. Will be sad when it's over.

Half-Broke Horses

2011-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

I loved Glass Castles and was not sure how this author could top such an incredibly outrageous memoir of her life, and yet this book tells the story of her Grandmother and although it is not action-packed, it is an interesting and quick read because you learn about Lily and all her spunk. I like how it came full circle at the end with Jeannette and her family. I loved the old time photos that started out each chapter. Lily was someone who I loved because she never settled for status quo or what was expected of her!!

The Well and The Mine

2011-01-09T17:06:00.001-08:00

Hmmm...what to even say about this book. Loved the beginning, but then spent most of the rest of the book waiting for something to happen!! I liked the characters, but what started out with such a bang quickly fizzled and never stood up to such a powerful beginning.

Let the Great World Spin

2011-01-09T17:02:00.000-08:00

I found this book fascinating on many levels. The story of how the guy was able to walk a tight wire across the World Trade Centers was just amazing to me. I would recommend this book...keeping in mind it can be somewhat dense at times...but worth it in the end for sure!!! It is written really well.

Fall of Giants

2011-01-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

LISA

Absolute boo hoo is all I can say about finishing this book! I enjoyed every minute of it -- and in fact was so drawn in at times that I would research events of the war just to find out what was going to happen because I couldn't take it! I read some comments about the book at Amazon that stated that it was quite ridiculous how many of the central characters ended up intersecting at the most unlikely of times. I would say to those people, it is a NOVEL! That didn't bother me at all.

Now I have to wait until the next book comes out -- and man, it must take a LONG time to write these!!!

And this book puts me in a tie with Hallie for most read books on this blog. Though I would like to point out that two of my most recent books were 1,000 pages, which is really like four books. But that is fine.

HALLIE

This book was a fantastic read! From the first page you are hooked and every character has a wonderful personality and story. And I agree with Lisa that the characters hooking up in strange places just added to the storyline. Couldn't put it down!

Rescue

2010-12-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

I began this book early Christmas Eve morning. I woke up and just oculdn't sleep and I was mad about this because I had worked so hard to get everything done ahead of time -- and sleeping in would have been ever so nice. But I started this book and was completely sucked in. It was good, but I rolled my eyes a couple of times at certain events -- highly unlikely, especially considering that the novel is set in a small Vermont community. I read it throughout the day, between popping in a pork loin roast and making beds and lighting candles -- you know, the traditional Christmas Eve drib drab that needs to be accomplished. I was exactly 95 percent finished with the book (kindle) when Jame popped in to surprise us all. I finished it after I went to bed. I recommend it!

Shantaram

2010-12-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

LISA: This was one hell of a long book at almost 1,000 pages, but I enjoyed every one of them. I did get a little crazed at the fact that weeks were passing and I was still reading the SAME book -- but it held my interest the entire time. What is so interesting is that it is based (loosely, but if you do some research on the author you realize he might just have to say that because everything he does in it is illegal!) on his own life, which is downright crazy. I would highly recommend it if you want to delve into a book that will bring you to another world (India) and give you insight on a different culture of people.

HALLIE: I absolutely loved loved loved this book. It was incredible being able to live the story of this man, forced to leave behind his complete first life and begin a new one in a new country while still learning to deal with the kind of person he is himself. There were some parts where I did get semi stuck and think wow this book is LONG but overall I loved every minute of it and would reccommend this to any person who enjoys reading about a culture that can't truly be understood until you live it. He was a great writer adn it actually made me want to go visit India!

Outliers

2010-12-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

I loved this book -- it really has some interesting information about what success is and how it is achieved. Being in the right place at the right time (luck, fate?) time of birth ... really have much more to do with it than outright determination. Which makes sense. I recommend this book to everyone. You will totally enjoy it.

I read this over a year ago and the part that really stuck with me was the hockey players. SO much plays into what becomes of our lives and although we all have choices along the way...this was a great book to make you think!!

Freedom

2010-11-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

LISA: I really liked this book, though it was just about characters. There is no story, really, and from time to time Franzen gets on a soap box about various and sundry things. I must say he has me a little freaked out about population! It is about a family, though they are never actually really a family in the story. More individual characters tied together by blood. But they have little interaction with each other. It's hard to explain, but I would definitely recommend it.

HALLIE: I went from strongly disliking the "autobiographer" of this book to really enjoying it and back and forth for the entire story! As said above there really is no storyline and it jumps around but it has this way of keeping you sucked in and wanting to continue to see what happens. And yet then there are some passages where it was all I could do to keep myself reading. I wanted to throw my kindle against the wall at some of the actions of the main female character, Patty. I wanted to slap her son Joey at most points in the book and then he ends up being an actual decent guy! Overall every character, story, and thought in the book is a contradiction and you go can't decide between wanting the book to last forever or finishing as soon as possible! And it's very long already!

Oh yea, I also feel very strongly about only having two kids now and that's just because at some point i'd like to have kids! haha, the population scare is strong in it!

Guns Will Keep Us Together

2010-10-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm, I am not really sure why I downloaded this book -- I mean the name and the cover should have tipped me off~! But it actually turned out to be quite cute -- it is about a family of assassins and the lead character Dakota finds out he has a son and then he falls in love for the first time (with another assassin of course!) Oh, and he is supposed to kill the woman he loves. Typical book fare!!!

Night

2010-10-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

Maddie needed (needs!) to read this book for her Holocaust class, but I attended the class with her on Friday and was intrigued enough by the discussion of the book to read it myself. It is a quick read -- and there is no new information if you know quite a bit about the Holocaust (unlike the book Sarah's Key, where I learned new information altogether). But I am not entirely sure if I have read a text on a survivor's account of what happened to him. Have I? I really don't know. But Elie was torn from his life when he was 15 and placed into a concentration camp with his father. His mother and younger sister were in the wrong line and were gassed immediately. It did highlight many of the same questions that I have always had ... they had a clue, they really did. But they chose NOT to do anything but wait and see. They put their faith in God. When they actually went into the camps, it was well into the game, and some of the people who had been in the camp for a year or longer were HORRIFIED to see them come in. Their response was IT IS 1944 and YOU ARE HERE? They were SO ANGRY that despite their friends and family disappearing altogether and never being heard from again, that they still waited to get carted away themselves.

The other thing that struck me was how random it all was. It was all about surviving -- and while their humanity was stripped away altogether, the will to live was pretty darn strong. Children would look away while their fathers were beaten and then steal the crust of bread from them. It was pretty horrible and it's amazing to think that this man could continue to live amongst humankind knowing what he does and seeing what he has seen. It can't have been easy. As the Russians are getting closer and closer and beginning to liberate the prison camps, the Nazi's take the prisoners and send them on death marches. They make them run, without food or water, for days. When someone falls, they are shot. When they die, they are left behind. That is the point, after all. What is SO sad is that at the second to last camp, Eli has some kind of foot problem, and he is in the infirmary having it fixed. There was definitely some compassion amongst the brutality, and while it was dangerous to be in the infirmary (why would they try to keep a Jew alive, when really all they cared about was killing them?) Elie trusts the doctor. When the Russians are about to "invade," he has to make a choice. He is told that all patients in the infirmary will be left behind (and then ultimately saved). But he can't believe that ... how could he? His father would have been allowed to stay with him too. But he stands up on his injured foot, and runs for days and days and days. This does his father in -- and at the final camp, his father dies. Not too long after, Elie is liberated. (And then later he finds out that if they had stayed, then ...) but that was what it was all about -- just pure dumb luck, timing, getting out of the gas chamber line before the SS saw you -- crazy.

My only complaint is that the book ends when he is freed -- but I have so many more questions about him. How did he survive knowing what he did? I mean, he is still alive and lectures, etc. but still.

Tomasen: An amazing read and yet such a small book. Both of my kids have now read this in school...truly moving.

Compromising Positions

2010-10-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

So I was playing around in the Kindle section at Amazon, and noticed there was free content ... so I checked it out. This book was actually free, so I figured, what the heck. At first I was a little put off by the cliche-type commentary, obviously not a polished writer. And yet, and yet! I couldn't put the dumb book down. It was a cute little love story and I thoroughly ate it up.

And it was free!

HALLIE: I agree with Lisa, very cute little love story! I loved this book and wished it had been longer!

The Melting Season

2010-10-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

I read a short story in the in-flight magazine on the flight to Chicago and really enjoyed the voice of the writer. When it said at the end that she had written several novels, I downloaded them to trust Kindle. I did enjoy this book, though it was a bit odd -- it was basically about a young girl who married a man with a small penis and that sort of created such a huge problem that she decided she needed to run away. Well, obviously not so simple, but she also had unhappy parents and a sister who was rebelling at home. She meets a woman in Las Vegas that becomes, I would say, her new crutch, and she builds a new life. I would suggest that it be read, you will enjoy it!

Black Out

2010-09-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

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!