Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Ana of California

Ana of California
by Andi Teran

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis:  In the grand tradition of Anne of Green GablesBridget Jones’s Diary, and The Three Weissmanns of Westport, Andi Teran’s captivating debut novel offers a contemporary twist on a beloved classic. Fifteen-year-old orphan Ana Cortez has just blown her last chance with a foster family. It’s a group home next—unless she agrees to leave East Los Angeles for a farm trainee program in Northern California.

When she first arrives, Ana can’t tell a tomato plant from a blackberry bush, and Emmett Garber is skeptical that this slight city girl can be any help on his farm. His sister Abbie, however, thinks Ana might be just what they need. Ana comes to love Garber Farm, and even Emmett has to admit that her hard work is an asset. But when she inadvertently stirs up trouble in town, Ana is afraid she might have ruined her last chance at finding a place to belong.

Becky's Review: I was excited to read this story because I really enjoy the story of Anne of Green Gables, even though I didn't really get into the story until I was an adult.  I thought that a modern day twist would be fun but I felt that many aspects of the original story just didn't fit in this modern day take.  You could figure out which characters in this book were supposed to represent characters of the original story.  I think the author just tried to hard to make the connections with both the characters and some events.  I think if the author wasn't so concerned about sticking to the original story, she could have developed the storyline more and taken it in a different direction.  I felt like there were aspects of this story that I'm still confused about.  Ana had lived a very tough life before she went into foster care and her life didn't get much better after she was brought into the system.  Ana refers to something that she didn't want to talk about and I'm not sure we actually find out what that is and if we did find out, it didn't seem like a big secret.  I definitely had higher hopes for this book.

Marcie's Review: I agree with Becky that the author definitely stretched to maintain the link to the original Anne of Green Gables book, and that, at times, that detracted from the storyline and the character development.  Knowing the original Anne as well as I do, I found myself anticipating certain plot twists, and (spoiler alert) was even a little disappointed when Emmett didn't die at the end.  I liked reading the book, though, and I thought Ana was a fascinating twist on a beloved character, modernized in a quite interesting way.  There were way too many heavy metal references for my taste.

Rating: 3 stars

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Walking on Trampolines

Walking on Trampolines
Frances Whiting

Walking on Trampolines

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Praised as “a tender exploration of friendship, families, and first love” (Liane Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of The Husband’s Secret), this coming-of-age novel from bestselling author Frances Whiting is equal parts heartwarming, accessible, and thought provoking.

“Tallulah de Longland,” she said slowly, letting all the Ls in my name loll about lazily in her mouth before passing judgment. “That,” she announced, “is a serious glamorgeous name.”

From the day Annabelle Andrews sashays into her classroom, Tallulah ‘Lulu’ de Longland is bewitched: by Annabelle, by her family, and by their sprawling, crumbling house tumbling down to the river.

Their unlikely friendship intensifies through a secret language where they share confidences about their unusual mothers, first loves, and growing up in the small coastal town of Juniper Bay. But the euphoria of youth rarely lasts, and the implosion that destroys their friendship leaves lasting scars and a legacy of self-doubt that haunts Lulu into adulthood.

Years later, Lulu is presented with a choice: remain the perpetual good girl who misses out, or finally step out from the shadows and do something extraordinary. And possibly unforgivable…

It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce.
 
Review:  I'm not sure where the name of this book came from; as far as I can remember, trampolines were not mentioned a single time in the book. Unlike the summary given above, the book focused primarily on the adult life of Lulu and the struggles she faces in her relationships.  In fact, the book is really less about her friendship with Annabelle and her terrible mistake than it is about her life in general and her relationships with her family and friends.  I started this review 10 days ago, giving it 4.5 stars, but I have downgraded it to only 4 stars because it hasn't stuck in my head as much as I would expect from a really fantastic book.

Lulu was a likable character who made an (uncharacteristic) terrible mistake, but was a completely relatable and well-drawn woman.  I especially enjoyed reading about her quirky friendships, especially with her boss.   And I always am happy to read books about characters who undergo interesting personal transformations.

Rating: 4 stars

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black
Piper Kerman

Orange Is the New Black

Genre: Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads): With her career, live-in boyfriend and loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the rebellious young woman who got mixed up with drug runners and delivered a suitcase of drug money to Europe over a decade ago. But when she least expects it, her reckless past catches up with her; convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at an infamous women's prison in Connecticut, Piper becomes inmate #11187-424. From her first strip search to her final release, she learns to navigate this strange world with its arbitrary rules and codes, its unpredictable, even dangerous relationships. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with tokens of generosity, hard truths and simple acts of acceptance.

Review:  Quite a few reviews of this book focus on how Piper seemed to have such an easy jail sentence because she is white, blonde, educated and cute.  While the term she served in prison did seem to be easier than what I would have imagined, she approached her sentence with a sense of humility and repentance that I found refreshing.  There was surprisingly little drama, fighting and violence in her minimum security prison, and so there wasn't really much drama in her story.  I've only seen one episode of the show, but I suspect I'll like the book better just based on the blatant mean-spiritedness and lesbianism evident in the first episode of the show that just wasn't a big deal in the book.  On a separate note, this book could really make you think about the benefits of a jail sentence for a non-violent criminal, and what could or should be done to improve the punishment for non-violent crimes.  It would be interesting to discuss this book with a book club.

Rating: 4 stars

The Secrets of Midwives

The Secrets of Midwives
Sally Hepworth

The Secrets of Midwives

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):A novel about three generations of midwives (a woman, her mother, and her grandmother) and the secrets they keep that push them apart and ultimately bind them together

THE SECRETS OF MIDWIVES tells the story of three generations of women devoted to delivering new life into the world—and the secrets they keep that threaten to change their own lives forever. Neva Bradley, a third-generation midwife, is determined to keep the details surrounding her own pregnancy—including the identity of the baby’s father— hidden from her family and co-workers for as long as possible. Her mother, Grace, finds it impossible to let this secret rest. For Floss, Neva’s grandmother and a retired midwife, Neva’s situation thrusts her back 60 years in time to a secret that eerily mirrors her granddaughter’s—a secret which, if revealed, will have life-changing consequences for them all. Will these women reveal their secrets and deal with the inevitable consequences? Or are some secrets best kept hidden?

 
Review:  Ok, I am tired of books trying to preach about "better" alternative ways of life.  If you are pregnant and find out that there is a complication with the baby, it is obviously better, for the safety of the baby, to deliver the child in a hospital, despite the mother's bad memories of hospitals, and any other decision is selfish and irresponsible.  This book seemed to be trying to convince people that hospitals and doctors are terrible, and that everyone should plan a natural homebirth with only a midwife in attendance, regardless of the health of the mother and baby.  That's a great choice for people who have uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries, again, if that's what the mother CHOOSES, but a hospital is clearly a safer and more responsible choice for many families.  Uggh.  The preachiness, especially from the midwife Grace, took away from my enjoyment of the book.

Looking past that, this was an interesting story about a daughter, mother and grandmother delving into complicated family relationships while helping women birth babies.  The character of Grace was generally annoying to me, but I quite liked Neva and Floss and their secret lives.

Rating: 3.5 stars

White Plague

White Plague
James Abel

White Plague (Joe Rush, #1)

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): In the frozen waters of the Arctic, Marine bioterror expert Joe Rush races to save a submarine crew from a lethal threat...

“The pleas for help stopped coming just after five in the morning, Washington time. The Pentagon staffers cleared for handling sensitive messages sat in horror for a moment and then tried other ways to reach the victims. Nothing worked so they called the Director, who phoned me.”

In the remote, frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, the high-powered and technically advanced submarine U.S.S. Montana is in peril. Adrift and in flames, the boat—and the entire crew—could be lost. The only team close enough to get to them in time is led by Marine doctor and bio-terror expert Joe Rush.

With only thirty-six hours before the surviving crew perish, Joe and his team must race to rescue the Montana and ensure that the boat doesn’t fall into enemy hands. Because a fast-approaching foreign submarine is already en route, and tensions may explode.

But that’s the least of their troubles. For the surviving sailors are not alone on the sub. Something is trapped with them. Something deadly lethal. Something that plagued mankind long ago, when it devastated the entire world. And the crew of the Montana has unknowingly set it free. Now, Joe and his team must not only find a way to save the Montana and her crew, but stop a lethal horror of apocalyptic consequence from being unleashed on all humanity.

 
Review:  I enjoyed this fast paced, gripping thriller set on a ship in the middle of the Arctic ocean, although I was seriously creeped out by the thought of a disease spreading as quickly and as easily as it did in this book.  Joe Rush was an interesting hero, one who was clearly smart, capable and brave, but made tough choices that looked like bad decisions along the way.  I would have preferred a little more character development, especially centered around Joe, but I liked the book enough to read a sequel by the same author.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Mapmaker's Children

The Mapmaker's Children
Sarah McCoy

The Mapmaker's Children

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
 

   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance.
 

   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.
 
Review:  While I occasionally love books with split narratives, I often find that one of the narrators is so much more interesting and compelling that it makes the book feel unbalanced.  Sarah's story of losing her father, working with abolitionists, falling in love, and struggling with her life choices during the Civil War was fascinating.  The author clearly did a lot of research into the history of John Brown and his family, the Underground Railroad, and life during the Civil War, and it it apparent in the attention she pays to detail and even in the style in which she writes about Sarah.  If the story had focused solely on Sarah, and fleshed out a little more of her life, I think I would have enjoyed it much more.

Unfortunately, I found Eden's story less believable.  At the start of the story, Eden is a huge cranky pants because of her infertility issues, and with the help of kindly townspeople, a precocious neighbor girl, and a charming puppy, she magically transforms into a happy and productive person.  I love stories of personal transformations normally, but Eden's story would have benefited from being set over a longer time period, as well as having more of her emotions fleshed out realistically.

Rating: 3 stars

Friday, September 11, 2015

The Daylight Marriage

The Daylight Marriage
Heidi Pitlor

The Daylight Marriage

Genre: Fiction, Mystery

Summary (from Goodreads): Hannah was the kind of woman who turned heads. Tall and graceful, naturally pretty, often impulsive, always spirited, the upper-class girl who picked, of all men, Lovell--the introverted climate scientist, the practical one who thought he could change the world if he could just get everyone to listen to reason. After a magical honeymoon they settled in the suburbs to raise their two children.

But over the years, Lovell and Hannah’s conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. She’s become withdrawn and directionless. His work affords him a convenient distraction. The children can sense the tension, which they’ve learned to mostly ignore. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. And Lovell, for the first time, is forced to examine the trajectory of his marriage through the lens of memory--and the eyes of his children. As he tries to piece together what happened to his wife--and to their lives together--readers follow Hannah through that single day when the smallest of decisions takes her to places she never intended to go.

With the intensity of The Lovely Bones, the balance of wit and heartbreak of The Descendants, and the emotional acuity of Anne Tyler’s work, The Daylight Marriage is at its heart a novel about what happens when our intuitions override our logic, with a page-turning plot that doesn’t reveal its secrets until the very end.

 
Review:  This was a quick read and an interesting story about a wife who has gone missing.  Written from the husband's perspective moving forward, and the wife's perspective about the day she went missing, it was interesting to see their separate reflections about themselves, each other, and their marriage.  Unfortunately, I couldn't stand any of the characters, so it was hard to actually like the book.  The teenage daughter was especially horrible.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Monday, September 7, 2015

As Close as Sisters

As Close as Sisters
Colleen Faulkner

As Close As Sisters

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Since the age of 12, McKenzie Arnold has spent every summer at Albany Beach, Delaware, with her best friends Aurora, Janine and Lilly. The seaside house teems with thirty years of memories - some wonderful, others painful - and secrets never divulged beyond its walls. This summer may be the last they spend together, as Janine contemplates selling her family cottage. For now, all four enjoy morning beach walks and lazy evenings on the porch, celebrating Lilly's longed-for pregnancy and offering support during McKenzie's greatest crisis. It's time for laughter and recriminations, a time to forge a new understanding of a long-ago night when Aurora sealed their bond with one devastating act. And as the days gradually shorten, events will unfold in ways that none of them could have predicted, to make this the most momentous summer of all.
 
Review:  I'm a sucker for stories about lifelong friends dealing with huge life challenges together, and I enjoyed this book very much.  I've never read a book by Faulkner before, and I think I'll add her to my list of authors to read more of.  She has a gift for making the characters seem real, and I found myself crying as I imagined myself in the situations with the characters.  I like that in an author.

I would have given this book 4.5 or even 5 stars, except for a few flaws.  Firstly - and this is a minor complaint, I know, but it bothered me - the cover depicts three women sitting at the edge of a lake, when it really should have shown four women sitting on the edge of an ocean.  Would that have been so hard to do?  Secondly, three of the four women experienced events in this book that I found unbelievable.  While I expected one or two plot twists, three seemed a bit excessive for a novel like this.  And I truly think the ending would have been more powerful if it had been more in line with the reader's expectations.

Rating: 4 stars

Sunday, September 6, 2015

The Accidental Alchemist

The Accidental Alchemist
Gigi Pandian

The Accidental Alchemist

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): A modern tale of ancient intrigue from a USA Today bestselling author

When Zoe Faust--herbalist, alchemist, and recent transplant to Portland, Oregon--begins unpacking her bags, she can't help but notice she's picked up a stow away: a living, breathing, three-and-half-foot gargoyle. Dorian Robert-Houdin is no simple automaton, nor is he a homunculus; in fact, he needs Zoe's help to decipher a centuries-old text that explains exactly what he is. Zoe, who's trying to put her alchemical life behind her, isn't so sure she can help. But after a murder victim is discovered on her front porch, Zoe realized she's tangled up in ancient intrigue that can't be ignored.

Includes recipes!

 
Review:  The premise of this book sounded fascinating, but sadly, the book didn't deliver.  There was virtually no character development, which was a serious problem given that the main character, a 300 year old alchemist, should have been amazingly interesting.  And the plot was constantly being interrupted by talk about cooking, veganism, tea, healing herbs, and the troubles of random secondary characters.  It seemed like as soon as the suspense would build and I would think "Yay, something exciting is actually going to happen!" the author would detour into the benefits of drinking a protein packed vegan smoothie.  I would recommend this book to people who are militaristic about encouraging others to become strict vegans while also enjoying some light fantasy/romantic fiction.  But otherwise, I'd say to skip this book.

Which is too bad, because with a better editor, this could have been a great story.

Rating: 2 stars