Friday, July 31, 2015

The Siege Winter

The Siege Winter
Ariana Franklin
and Samantha Norman

The Siege Winter: A Novel

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): England, 1141. The countryside is devastated by a long civil war that has left thousands dead. With no clear winner in the conflict, castles and villages change hands from month to month as the English king, Stephen, and his cousin, the empress Matilda, battle for the crown.

Emma is the eleven-year-old redheaded daughter of a peasant family. When mercenaries pass through their town, they bring with them a monk with a deadly interest in young redheaded girls. Left for dead in a burned-out church, Emma is one more victim in a winter of atrocities until another mercenary, Gwil, an archer, finds her by chance. Barely alive, she cannot remember her name or her life before the attack. Unable to simply abandon her, Gwil takes her with him, dressing her as a boy to avoid attention. Emma becomes Penda—and Penda turns out to have a killer instinct with a bow and arrow. But Gwil becomes uneasily aware that the monk who hurt his protégée is still out there, and that a scrap of a letter Emma was found clutching could be very valuable to the right person . . . or the wrong one.

Maud is the fifteen-year-old chatelaine of Kenniford, a small but strategically important castle she's determined to protect as the war rages around them. But when Maud provides refuge for the empress, Stephen's armies lay siege to Kenniford Castle and Maud must prove that she's every bit the leader her father was. Aided by a garrison of mercenaries— including Gwil and his odd, redheaded apprentice—they must survive a long winter under siege. It's a brutal season that brings everyone to Kenniford, from kings to soldiers to the sinister monk who has never stopped hunting the redheaded girl . . .

 
Review:  It was very interesting to read a historical fiction novel set in the 12th century, it's not an era that I know much about.  I enjoyed the descriptions of places, people, and all the little details that made the 12th century come to life.  Descriptions of battle were a little gory for me, and it was perhaps a tad dark for the mood I was in.  But overall, I quite enjoyed it.

Rating: 4 stars

Signal

Signal
Patrick Lee

Signal (Sam Dryden, #2)

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): With RUNNER, "Patrick Lee entered the ranks of the best action-thriller writers" (Kirkus Reviews)—now with SIGNAL, Patrick Lee and Sam Dryden are back and at the very top of their game.

From the bestselling author of RUNNER comes the next thriller featuring Sam Dryden, in the series that has captured the imagination of readers worldwide.

In the middle of the night, ex-Special Forces operative Sam Dryden gets a urgent call from an old colleague, desperate for his help in a last-minute secret mission. Without a moment's hesitation, Dryden agrees. The two race to a remote shack in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, where they break in, rescue four girls before the kidnapper can harm them, then flee into the hills just seconds ahead of the arriving police and FBI team.

It's then that Sam Dryden learns the real secret behind this mission. His former teammate has been working security of a very special, very secret government project. A project that led to the development of a device which revealed what would have happened to the kidnapped girls if they hadn't intervened as they did. But as Newton's laws predict, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. There are some very bad people determined to get their hands on this device, and every time Sam uses it, now matter how well intentioned, there are hidden and unintended consequences. Consequences that threaten to rip apart his very world and everything that he holds dear.

 
Review:  The science fiction aspect of this book was a tad more confusing than that of his previous books, but I still enjoyed this fast paced action story.  What I typically like about Lee's books is that he integrates the science fiction so seemlessly that the story seems like it could really happen, and this one didn't feel quite as real.  Regardless, Dryden is a great hero who is fun to read about,
the story was interesting, and I read this very quickly.

Rating: 4 stars

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Beekeeper's Ball

The Beekeeper's Ball
Susan Wiggs

The Beekeeper's Ball (Bella Vista Chronicles, #2)

Genre: Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): #1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs returns to sun-drenched Bella Vista, where the land's bounty yields a rich harvest…and family secrets that have long been buried.

Isabel Johansen, a celebrated chef who grew up in the sleepy Sonoma town of Archangel, is transforming her childhood home into a destination cooking school—a unique place for other dreamers to come and learn the culinary arts. Bella Vista's rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchards, bountiful gardens and beehives, is the idyllic venue for Isabel's project…and the perfect place for her to forget the past.

But Isabel's carefully ordered plans begin to go awry when swaggering, war-torn journalist Cormac O'Neill arrives to dig up old history. He's always been better at exposing the lives of others than showing his own closely guarded heart, but the pleasures of small-town life and the searing sensuality of Isabel's kitchen coax him into revealing a few truths of his own.

The dreamy sweetness of summer is the perfect time of year for a grand family wedding and the enchanting Beekeeper's Ball, bringing emotions to a head in a story where the past and present collide to create an unexpected new future.

From "one of the best observers of stories of the heart" (Salem Statesman-Journal), The Beekeeper's Ball is an exquisite and richly imagined novel of the secrets that keep us from finding our way, the ties binding us to family and home, and the indelible imprint love can make on the human heart.

 
Review:  This book was fine, but it didn't keep my attention.  I have enjoyed other series by Susan Wiggs, so I thought I'd give her new series a try.  Unfortunately, I started with the second book in the series, not realizing that there was a book that came before it.  While this is a stand-alone book, it makes a lot of references to the adventures that the characters had in the previous book, and I felt like I was missing out by not having read it.  That aside....

 The descriptions of setting and food are simply lovely, and more than anything, this book makes me want to travel to Napa or even Italy.  But I'm not buying the characters - Isabel seems too good to be true, and the romance that is very slowly developing between her and Mac (I'm 2/3 of the way through the book, and Isabel is just now admitting that she may be interested in Mac) feels unsubstantiated.  Plus, about 75% of the book is written in the present, and the other 25% is written as a memory that Isabel's grandfather has about his involvement in the Danish resistance during World War II.  Those parts are fascinating, but could use more detail - perhaps that could have been a separate book?  The jumping between times was too distracting for me.

I just realized what my problem is with this book - there are too many interesting story lines, and the author couldn't go in depth enough about any of them.  I think the book would have been better if it had focused only on the romance, the cooking school, the wedding, the beekeeper and Isabel's past.  Or, I suppose, it could have focused on Isabel's grandfather's past, Isabel's cooking school and her romance.  There was just way too much going on.

Again, maybe I'm growing out of romances...

Rating: 2.5 stars

Silver Thaw

Silver Thaw
Catherine Anderson

Silver Thaw (Mystic Creek, #1)

Genre: Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): From the New York Times bestselling author of the Coulter and Harrigan Family novels comes a brand-new contemporary romance series about first love, second chances, and hope reborn…

After years of living in fear of her husband, Amanda Banning has left him and moved to Mystic Creek, Oregon, for a fresh start. But she’s having a tough time providing for herself and her six-year-old daughter. Writing her secret yearnings on slips of paper and sending them into the wind helps her cling to the hope that things will get better…and that she can find happiness again.

Jeb Sterling has no idea that the handwritten messages he finds scattered across his land are the first hints that his life is about to change. Nor does he understand why he feels so compelled to help Amanda Banning and her daughter when a cold snap leaves them temporarily homeless. Maybe he’s inspired by Amanda’s courage or perhaps by her beautiful brown eyes. Either way, the man who once renounced love suddenly finds himself willing to do anything for the pair. Amanda seems to have given up on her dreams, but Jeb refuses to quit until he makes her every wish come true…

 
Review:  Catherine Anderson used to be my go-to author when I was in the mood for a romance, but I think I'm done reading her new books.  She's already written a book about an abused wife running away from a psychopathic husband (Star Bright) and being rescued by a handsome cowboy, and this one felt like very much the same book, only with a different family.  The characters were flat, the romance was too quick, and the story was too convenient.  Am I growing out of romance novels, or has Anderson reached her limits as an author?

Rating: 2 stars

A Bean, a Stalk, and a Boy Named Jack

A Bean, a Stalk, and a Boy Named Jack
by William Joyce
Illustrated by Kenny Callicutt

Genre: Picture book, Fractured Fairy Tale

Synopsis: Here's Jack, a smallish boy.

Here's a smallish bean, last one outta the pod.

Here's a smallish giant kit with a great big problem.

But with a smallish wave of a wand and a lotta courage, maybe this pair can make a GIANT difference...Let's give it a go!
from the book jacket

Review:  It's hard to call this book based on Jack and the Beanstalk because nothing in the story is the same except for the fact that there is a boy named Jack and he plants a bean that makes a giant beanstalk.  That's about it in similarity.  They do introduce Jack to Jill at the end of the book and it turned into the nursery rhyme.  This was just a fun, quirky book full of humorous language.  I love that the author made up some words like math-ing, used the word soooo, used phrases such as "no great shakes" and that the illustrator added some fun language to his pictures too.  It's really hard to describe but it's fun and cute!  This book was written to be read aloud.  Now the one thing I didn't particularly like was the use of non standard words like atcha, lotta, outta, etc.  Since those aren't real words, I have a hard time with them being used in print.  Overall, this was a really fun read that my kids enjoyed.

Rating: 4 stars

Interstellar Cinderella

Interstellar Cinderella
by Deborah Underwood
Illustrated by Meg Hunt

Genre: Picture Book, Fractured Fairy Tale

Synopsis: Once upon a planetoid, amid her tools and sprockets, a girl named Cinderella dreamed of fixing fancy rockets.

With a little help from her fairy godrobot, Cinderella is going to the ball-but when the price's ship has mechanical trouble, someone will have to zoom to the rescue!  Readers will thank their lucky stars for this irrepressible fairy tale retelling, its independent heroine, and its stellar happy ending.

Review:  With having a kid in the house who is obsessed with space and both kids loving fractured fairy tales, I knew I needed to check out this book the minute I saw it.  I love the Cinderella is portrayed as doing something not typically done by her gender-being a mechanic.  I also love the fact that she has a great time at the ball talking with the prince but does not fall head over heels for him.  I won't give away the ending but it is definitely not the traditional happily ever after story that we get from most fairy tales.  The rhyme scheme keeps the story flowing.  The space setting is a fun twist to the story.  My kids definitely enjoyed this book!

Rating: 4 stars

The Silent Sister

The Silent Sister
by Diane Chamberlain

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis:  In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family. Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound reality, in this engrossing mystery from international bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.
from GoodReads

Review:  I picked up this book a while ago, read the first 10 or so pages and put it down and read several other books.  Then I returned to this book in the hopes that I would be more excited about the book.  I have to admit that it was hard to really lose myself in this book but I forced myself to keep reading because I generally enjoy Chamberlain's books.  Finally I became more invested in the story but it didn't take me a while.  I think my problem was that I didn't like any of the characters.  Riley was OK but I did not like her brother, Danny, has he seemed odd and very angry, not at all a loving brother.  The other side characters who come in contact with Riley were not portrayed well either.  Riley had uneasy feelings about them which made me not like them.  You ask then what kept me going.  Well, the mystery of finding out about Lisa's suicide, murder, disappearance, etc was compelling.  I wanted to know what really happened.  As you keep reading you get to know more and more of the truth about what happened and where Lisa has been for the last twenty-some years.  There was a lot lacking in the story to have me rate this book higher and I think it is entirely due to the likeableness of the characters.

Rating: 3 stars

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Five Days Left

Five Days Left 
by Julie Lawson Timmer

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Mara Nichols seems to have it all.  She is a successful lawyer, devoted daughter, adoring wife to a handsome doctor, and adoptive mother to a child she loves more than anything.  At first, when Mara's husband becomes alarmed by changes in her behavior, she is angry.  But as time goes on, Mara can no longer deny that something is truly wrong.

A thousand miles away, Scott Coffman is a middle school teacher committed to bettering the lives of his underprivileged students.  He and his wife want a baby of their own.  When the younger brother of a former star pupil needs a home, Scott can't resist taking in the boy, despite his wife's misgivings.  Instead of parenting an adorable newborn baby, he and his wife are mastering the art of disciplining a rambunctious eight-year-old boy.

When the reason for Mara's behavior changes becomes clear, and the boy Scott has been looking after is scheduled to return to his mother, Mara and Scott suddenly have only five days left with the ones they love most.  And both face the most difficult decision of their lives.
from the book jacket

Review: The book jacket description makes you think that you are going to read about Mara and Scott much earlier in time than you actually read about.  This book takes place over the course of 6 days and you read about their stories in flashback and also in what is happening on those six days.  From the very first sentence you know what the five days are counting down to and I really had to stop myself from reading the end to find out if she actually did what she said she was going to do.  I wasn't sure I could read the book thinking that Mara was going to go through with it.  But I restrained myself and kept hoping that Mara would change her mind.  This book is emotional and sappy but I love sappy so I'm not complaining at all.  I did shed some tears while reading this book.  This was a fast read that I couldn't put down and read in less than a day.  When I got to the end, I was torn.  I'm still trying to decide if the ending was what as best for the book.  I think it was but I'm not sure it was what I wanted  to see happen.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Monday, July 27, 2015

Still Alice

Still Alice
by Lisa Genova

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build.  At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children.  When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease changes her life.

As the inevitable descent into dementia strips away her sense of self, fiercely independent Alice struggles to live in the moment.  While she once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must reevaluate her relationship with her husband, a respected scientist; her expectations of her children, and her ideas about herself and her place in the world.
from the book jacket

Review: I wasn't sure how much I would like this book and relate to it since it is about a fifty year old woman who has Alzheimer's but I could not put this book down!  As the book goes on, Alice just gets more and more disoriented and confused and your heart just breaks for her and her family.  There were times I teared up while reading about Alice's difficulty recognizing her children and her husband.  There was a time that Alice gave a speech about what she wanted for patients with Alzheimer's and it makes you really think about how patients should be treated.  My one complaint with this book is the technicalities and all the science terms.  There were parts I just had to skim because I wasn't following the science/medicine that the characters were talking about.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Comfort of Lies

The Comfort of Lies
by Randy Susan Meyers

Genre: Women's Fiction

Synopsis:  Five years ago, Tia fell into obsessive love wit ha man she could never have.  Married, and the father of two boys, Nathan was unavailable in every way.  When she became pregnant, he disappeared, and she gave her baby up for adoption.

Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband.  She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she's questioning whether she's cut out for the role of wife and mother.

Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business.  Then she discovered Nathan's affair.  He promised he'd never stray again, and she trusted him.

But when Juliette intercepts a letter to her husband from Tia that contains pictures of a child with a deep resemblance to her husband, her world crumbles once more.  How could Nathan deny his daughter?  And if he's kept this a secret from her, what else is he hiding?  Desperate for the truth, Juliette goes in search of the little girl.  And before long, the three women and Nathan are on a collision course with consequences that non of them could have predicted.
from the book jacket

Review:  At first I enjoyed the story and really liked Tia.  She seemed like a kind, happy person albeit one who slept with a married man.  But then I struggled with the characters in this book.  All of them seemed depressed and needed some medication for it.  Tia, in particular, seemed self destructive.  I didn't love any of the characters and didn't connect to any of them.  By the end I could have cared less about what happened to them and couldn't wait to just be done with the book.

Rating: 2 stars

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Outside the Lines

Outside the Lines
by Amy Hatvany

Genre: Women's Fiction

Synopsis: When Eden was ten years old she found her father, David, bleeding out on the bathroom floor.  The suicide attempt led to her parents' divorce, and David all but vanished from Eden's life.  Since childhood, she has heard from him only rarely, just enough to know he's been living on the streets and struggling with mental illness.  But lately, there has been no word at all.

Now in her thirties, Eden decides to go look for her father, so she can forgive him at last, and finally move forward.  When her search uncovers other painful truths-not only the secrets her mother has kept from her, but also the agonizing question of whether David, after all these years, even wants to be found-Eden is forced todecide just how far she'll go in the name of love.
from the back of the book

Review:  This book started out slowly jumping from the present when Eden is searching for her father and the past when Eden was a child and her dad was struggling with mental illness and trying to get well.  It just didn't seem to move anywhere.  Then Eden goes to a homeless shelter, Hope House, and meets Jack and the book has a romantic note to it.  Once Eden gets clues about how to search for her father, the action picks up but there's not a tremendous amount of action in this book.  The flashbacks continue but we also see David's perspective after he loses contact with Eden and that is interesting to hear his views on his illness and what it takes for him to cope.  I wish there had either been more development with Eden's brother, Byrce, and her best friend, Georgia, or had less of them in the story because when they were included I felt like I didn't know them at all and they weren't entirely necessary.  

Rating: 3.5 stars

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Endgame: The Calling

The Endgame: The Calling
by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis:  Twelve thousand years ago, they came. They descended from the sky amid smoke and fire, and created humanity and gave us rules to live by. They needed gold and they built our earliest civilizations to mine it for them. When they had what they needed, they left. But before they left, they told us someday they would come back, and when they did, a game would be played. A game that would determine our future.

This is Endgame.

For ten thousand years the lines have existed in secret. The 12 original lines of humanity. Each had to have a Player prepared at all times. They have trained generation after generation after generation. In weapons, languages, history, tactics, disguise assassination. Together the players are everything: strong, kind, ruthless, loyal, smart, stupid, ugly, lustful, mean, fickle, beautiful, calculating, lazy, exuberant, weak. They are good and evil. Like you. Like all.

This is Endgame.

When the game starts, the players will have to find three keys. The keys are somewhere on earth. The only rule of their Endgame is that there are no rules. Whoever finds the keys first wins the game. Endgame: The Calling is about the hunt for the first key. And just as it tells the story of the hunt for a hidden key, written into the book is a puzzle. It invites readers to play their own Endgame and to try to solve the puzzle. Whoever does will open a case filled with gold. Alongside the puzzle will be a revolutionary mobile game built by Google’s Niantic Labs that will allow you to play a real-world version of Endgame where you can join one of the lines and do battle with people around you.

Will exuberance beat strength? Stupidity top kindness? Laziness thwart beauty? Will the winner be good or evil? There is only one way to find out.

Play.
Survive.
Solve.
People of Earth.
Endgame has begun.
from GoodReads

Review:  This book took itself a little too seriously.  It was very drama filled and there were plenty of moments that you could say "bum hum BUM" because you knew something dramatic was going to happen.  I think that the authors were writing this book so that it could be made into a movie.  Parts of the book seemed like it would be perfect for a screenplay.  This book is definitely a thriller and I wondered why it was young adult and then the book goes into young adult relationships and you can't help but roll your eyes at young love.  There was a puzzle in the book and the prize is $500,000 so there were quite a few things added into this book that made no sense at all to me that I assume were for the puzzle.  There were pictures that didn't go with anything.  There were random numbers thrown into the text that made no sense to the book.  There were numbers and quotes between chapters that led to footnotes that led to google searches that sometimes led to maps, others to youtube videos and others to websites with random articles.  The footnotes did make sense to the book for the most part but not necessarily in the order they were presented.  The puzzle aspect of the book really got in the way and left me confused.

I did, however, enjoy the story.  It was definitely an intriguing concept which the authors claim is real (Endgame is coming).  You have to take it with a grain of salt.  The plotline was fast paced and kept you reading.  There were definitely some evil characters that made you shiver and some characters that you were really rooting for.  There was also some gruesomeness.  I am invested in the story enough to read the next 2 books (the next one comes out later this year) because I need to know who wins Endgame (if anyone).

Rating: 3.5 stars

Friday, July 17, 2015

The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker
by Elin Hilderbrand

Genre: Women's Fiction

Synopsis:  Dabney Kimball Beech, the 48-year-old fifth generation Nantucketer, has had a lifelong gift of matchmaking (52 couples still together to her credit). But when Dabney discovers she is dying of pancreatic cancer, she sets out to find matches for a few people very close to home: her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech; her lover journalist Clendenin Hughes; and her daughter, Agnes, who is engaged to be married to the wrong man. 

As time slips away from Dabney, she is determined to find matches for those she loves most - but at what cost to her own relationships? THE MATCHMAKER is the heartbreaking new novel from Elin Hilderbrand about losing and finding love, even as you're running out of time.
from GoodReads

Review:  This was my first book by Elin Hilderbrand and I read it because someone recommended this author to me.  After reading the author's bio on GoodReads and finding out that all of her books are set in Nantucket, I probably won't be reading any more of her books.  I found this book pretentious.  The characters in the book, both Dabney, Box and the side characters all seemed to need to keep up with appearances and look their best and show off for the other people on the island.  That kind of behavior is not one that I appreciate reading about.  It turns me off to the characters and the story.  It does not make me want to ever visit Nantucket if that is how people are.  The whole book had this light, frivolous air to it and then all of a sudden Dabney finds out she is dying (I hadn't looked at the book description before reading the book so I didn't know this ahead of time) and then the book tries to get more serious but it just doesn't work.

Rating: 2 stars

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Heir

The Heir
by Kiera Cass

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.

But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.
from GoodReads

Review:  I didn't realize that there was going to be a fourth book to The Selection series.  The first ones were guilty pleasure reading books for me and since I was going on vacation and didn't want anything too involved, I knew this would be the right book for me.  I read this book fairly quickly as it stuck to the same light reading as the first three books.  This story is about Maxom's and America's daughter, Eadlyn, who goes through a Selection because her parents are trying to make people forget about their problems.  Eadlyn does not want to go through a selection and she shows her disdain by not taking the process or the men seriously.  She is a self centered, immature and whiny and not the most pleasant of main characters.  I wasn't a fan of reading about her.  Luckily at the end she seems like she is going to mature in the next book (of course, there has to be a next book because the story leaves us hanging).  I will read the next book(s) because I want to know what happens to this next selection.

Rating: 3 stars

Suicide Notes

Suicide Notes
by Michael Thomas Ford

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis: I'm not crazy.  I on't see what the big deal is about what happened.  But apparently someone does think it's a big deal because here I am.  I bet it was mother.  She always overreacts.

Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital.  Make that the psychiatric ward.  With the nutjobs.  Clearly, this is all a huge mistake.  Forget about the bandages on his wrists and the notes on his chart.  Forget about his problems with his best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend, Burke.  Jeff's perfectly fine, perfectly normal, not like the other kids in the hospital with him.  Now they've got problems.  But a funny thing happens as his forty-five-day sentence drags on-the crazies start to seem less crazy.
from the book jacket

Review:  At first Jeff drove me nuts because he wouldn't accept that he had a problem and was really smart aleck-y about it.  But then I realized that was probably pretty realistic.  Jeff added humor to a situation that normally wouldn't be humorous and the book was fairly light which was unexpected considering the topic.  I did manage to guess Jeff's secret which we don't find out about until more than three-fourths of the way through the book so it was pretty predictable.  I thought the ending wrapped up a little too nicely after Jeff was so reluctant to talk about his problems and I didn't think that was terribly realistic.  I wanted to know more about Jeff's discovery and what happened afterwards.

Rating: 3 stars

Monday, July 13, 2015

Clara's War

Clara's War
Clara Kramer

Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival

Genre:  Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): On 21 July 1942 the Nazis invaded Poland. In the small town of Zolkiew, life for Jewish 15-year-old Clara Kramer was never to be the same again. While those around her were either slaughtered or transported, Clara and her family hid perilously in a hand-dug cellar. Living above and protecting them were the Becks.

Mr Beck was a womaniser, a drunkard and a self-professed anti-Semite, yet he risked his life throughout the war to keep his charges safe. Nevertheless, life with Mr Beck was far from predictable. From the house catching fire, to Beck's affair with Clara's cousin, to the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room just above, Clara's War transports you into the dark, cramped bunker, and sits you next to the families as they hold their breath time and again.

Sixty years later, Clara Kramer has created a memoir that is lyrical, dramatic and heartbreakingly compelling. Despite the worst of circumstances, this is a story full of hope and survival, courage and love.

 
Review:  Oh, this book was heartrending!  Along the lines of Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, this book recounts a teenage Jewish Polish girl's struggle to hide from the Nazis during World War II.  While Clara talks about the unbelievably terrible things that happen to all of her friends, family, neighbors, schoolmates and acquaintances, she also makes a point of talking about the strength, courage and hope that her family had, and the bravery of the family who hid them for almost two years.  There is plenty of tragedy in this book, but that message of courage is the one that really stuck with me at the end.  It is amazing how anyone survived the circumstances that her family did.

Rating: 5 stars

The Snow Child

The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm, she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.
 
Review:  I loved the descriptions of living in Alaska and the beautiful imagery of winter; it made me feel cold and even long for winter's beauty.  This book focused on characters rather than action, and each of the main characters, as well as the secondary characters, were well drawn and sympathetic.  I think my problem with this book was that I couldn't figure out whether it was supposed to be a fairy tale or whether it was supposed to be realistic. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Monday, July 6, 2015

The Dry Grass of August

The Dry Grass of August
Anna Jean Mayhew

The Dry Grass of August

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): In a personal, powerful debut, Mayhew explores the explosive tensions of the South in the mid-1950s through the prism of a young girl's friendship with her black maid and the currents of violence, infidelity, and corruption that run beneath the polite surface of her family's life.
 
Review:  I don't know why I didn't like this book more.  It's a coming of age novel about a white girl growing up in the racist south, with a father who is abusive and a maid who is loving and black.  Perhaps it is because there was tragedy with no real redemption, or perhaps it is because I felt like this story has been written before.  Or perhaps I just didn't identify with Jubie.

Rating: 3 stars

Orchard House

Orchard House
Tara Austen Weaver

Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow

Genre:  Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): For fans of Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving memoir of rediscovering, reinventing, and reconnecting, as an estranged mother and daughter come together to revive a long-abandoned garden and ultimately their relationship and themselves.
 
Peeling paint, stained floors, vined-over windows, a neglected and wild garden—Tara Austen Weaver can’t get the Seattle real estate listing out of her head. Any sane person would have seen the abandoned property for what it was: a ramshackle half-acre filled with dead grass, blackberry vines, and trouble. But Tara sees potential and promise—not only for the edible bounty the garden could yield for her family, but for the personal renewal she and her mother might reap along the way.

So begins Orchard House, a story of rehabilitation and cultivation—of land and soul. Through bleak winters, springs that sputter with rain and cold, golden days of summer, and autumns full of apples, pears, and pumpkins, this evocative memoir recounts the Weavers’ trials and triumphs, detailing what grew and what didn’t, the obstacles overcome and the lessons learned. Inexorably, as mother and daughter tend this wild patch and the fruits of their labor begin to flourish, green shoots of hope emerge from the darkness of their past.

For everyone who has ever planted something that they wished would survive—or tried to mend something that seemed forever broken—Orchard House is a tale of healing and growth set in a most unlikely place.

 
Review: This book made me want to dig up my yard and plant a huge vegetable garden, except it also made me realize that I really don't have time to take care of a big garden right now.  Unlike the author, I would prefer to have a life with friends and family and other non-garden things in it.  There were some beautiful descriptive moments, when talking about the meadow and the orchard and the arching blackberry vines, reminiscent of magical childhood gardens like The Secret Garden.  I preferred reading about the challenges in gardening, rather than remembrances of the author's unhappy, neglected childhood with her distant workaholic mother.  

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Fragile World

The Fragile World
Paula Treick DeBoard

The Fragile World

Genre:  Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): From the author of publishing sensation The Mourning Hours comes a powerful new novel that explores every parent's worst nightmare.

The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test.

And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything.Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a freak accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief. The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once perfect family find themselves falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong.

An emotionally charged novel, The Fragile World is a journey through America's heartland and a family's brightest and darkest moments, exploring the devastating pain of losing a child and the beauty of finding healing in unexpected ways.

 
Review: I generally steer clear of books about kids who die, but I thought I'd take a chance on this one since it had a review by Heather Gudenkauf on the cover, and she is Becky's new favorite author.  I wanted to like this book, but I didn't feel emotionally connected to it in any way.  Perhaps it would have helped to have gotten to know the characters before Daniel dies, or perhaps more information about how each character handled the grieving process would have made me feel more connected.  But this felt more like a book about a bizarre road trip for revenge than about dealing with grief.  Added to that, it just felt too unrealistic. 

Rating: 3 stars

Ready Player One

Ready Player One
Ernest Cline

Ready Player One

Genre:  Dystopian Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life — and love — in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

 
Review:  I suspect that this will be my favorite book from 2015.  In fact, I wish I hadn't read it, so I could go back and have the pleasure of reading it for the first time all over again.  This book was just FUN.

Most reviewers say this book will be a hit for anyone who was a teenager in the 1980s or anyone who plays video games or anyone who is a huge pop culture fan.  And I can see why people would say that; this book is about a dorky boy who spends most of his time in a video game obsessing about the video game and movie culture of the 1980s.  But I don't fit in any of those categories, and I still loved it.  It would certainly help to know what video games are, and to have seen some of the popular 1980s era movies, but you don't have to be a 40 year old video game addicted man to enjoy this book.

There were a few sections that were a little preachy and a few sections that were a little slow and included too much detail.  But for the most part, the story moved quickly, the characters were delightful, and the plot was engaging.

Becky, I don't know if it's your kind of book, but Brian might like it.

Rating: 5 stars

Fortunately, the Milk

Fortunately, the Milk
Neil Gaiman

Fortunately, the Milk

Genre:  Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): "I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."

"Hullo," I said to myself. That's not something you see every day." And then something odd happened.


Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal.

 
Review:  (Review by Amelia)  This book was funny because there were aliens who wanted to redecorate the earth by putting plastic flamingos in instead of trees, and they wanted to replace the moon with a big decorative plate.  Parts of it were a little bit scary, like when the aliens were trying to capture him and when the pirates tried to make him walk the plank.  I think the dad made up the whole story, I think he was at the store talking to one of his friends, but the author never tells you if that's true.

(Review by Marcie)  This book is hilarious!  I think that Brian should get it from the library and read it to Natalie and Noah, because it seems like the kind of story that he would make up for them.  I told Amelia she had to read at least 30 pages of it before she could put it down and read a book of her choice (American Girl books) and she read the entire thing without stopping.  It's not exactly her kind of book, but it does include ponies, dinosaurs, aliens, time travel, pirates, vampires and volcanos, so I think probably most kids would find something entertaining in it.

Amelia's Rating: 4.5 stars 

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road
Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road

Genre:  Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): It all began with a letter inquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84, Charing Cross Road, a relationship blossoms into a warm and charming long-distance friendship lasting many years.
 
Review:  It was interesting to get a little glimpse of post-WWII life in England, and the author certainly seemed like a nice, quirky person who had a gift for writing short and entertaining letters.  But I don't understand why this collection of letters was published as a book.  Perhaps it would have made more sense if I was an avid reader of the obscure classic books and letters that peppered the letters.  Although I suspect I would still be wondering why someone's correspondence was being published, and why she saves all those letters anyway.

Rating: 2 stars

Paper Towns

Paper Towns
John Green

Paper Towns

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...

 
Review: I like books with quirky characters, and all the characters in this book have enough fun eccentricities that I was entertained by their shenanigans the entire time I was reading.  In fact, some of their road trip escapades made me laugh out loud, and still make me laugh when I think about them.  Green certainly has a gift for creating fantastic characters.  But the storyline was a little bit of a stretch for me, and the ending was somewhat disappointing.  I can see how this book would appeal to young adults.

Rating: 4 stars

Life from Scratch

Life from Scratch
Sasha Martin

Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness

Genre: Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): It was a culinary journey like no other: Over the course of 195 weeks, food writer and blogger Sasha Martin set out to cook—and eat—a meal from every country in the world. As cooking unlocked the memories of her rough-and-tumble childhood and the loss and heartbreak that came with it, Martin became more determined than ever to find peace and elevate her life through the prism of food and world cultures. From the tiny, makeshift kitchen of her eccentric, creative mother to a string of foster homes to the house from which she launches her own cooking adventure, Martin’s heartfelt, brutally honest memoir reveals the power of cooking to bond, to empower, and to heal—and celebrates the simple truth that happiness is created from within.
 
Review:  The idea of cooking dishes from every country in the world was an intriguing one, and I enjoyed reading about how the author selected her recipes and what her family thought about all the meals.  The stories about her past were interesting, too, but I couldn't help feeling that there must have been more going on with her mother than she admitted to.

Rating: 3 stars

Sunday, July 5, 2015

All Fall Down

All Fall Down
by Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Fiction

SynopsisAllison Weiss got her happy ending: a handsome husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician's office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder: Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class, or if your husband ignores you? She tells herself that the pills help her make it through her days; but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that's becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?

Hailed as "a witty, realistic criticism on the modern age" (Boston Herald), this remarkable story of a woman's fall into addiction and struggle to find her way back up again is Jennifer Weiner's most masterful, moving, and celebrated work yet.
from GoodReads

Review: I had a hard time with this book because I just could not understand Allison's addiction and I found it difficult to have sympathy for her.  At first I really did identify with her as a mom who has a lot going on and is overwhelmed by so many things.  But the more her pill popping went on, I just wanted to reach in the book and give her a big slap.  That was probably the point of the book though-that the person who has the addiction needs to realize herself or himself that there is a problem and want to get some help.  Even when Allison was receiving some help, she still annoyed me for her immature behavior.  I wanted more from the book than just pill popping and a few other story lines were thrown in but not well developed.  I didn't like Allison's husband, Dave, that much either because I couldn't figure him out.  I feel like the story had potential and I did get through the book quickly, there just needed to be more development and less whining from Allison.

Rating: 3 stars