Saturday, December 31, 2016

My Name is Leon

My Name is Leon
Kit de Waal

My Name Is Leon

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): For fans of The Language of Flowers, a sparkling, big-hearted, page-turning debut set in the 1970s about a young black boy’s quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care.

Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, “I’m your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.” Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can.

But Leon isn’t in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can’t protect his little family from everything. When their mother falls victim to her inner demons, strangers suddenly take Jake away; after all, a white baby is easy to adopt, while a half-black nine-year-old faces a less certain fate. Vowing to get Jake back by any means necessary, Leon’s own journey—on his brand-new BMX bike—will carry him through the lives of a doting but ailing foster mother, Maureen; Maureen’s cranky and hilarious sister, Sylvia; a social worker Leon knows only as “The Zebra”; and a colorful community of local gardeners and West Indian political activists.

Told through the perspective of nine-year-old Leon, too innocent to entirely understand what has happened to him and baby Jake, but determined to do what he can to make things right, he stubbornly, endearingly struggles his way through a system much larger than he can tackle on his own. My Name Is Leon is a vivid, gorgeous, and uplifting story about the power of love, the unbreakable bond between brothers, and the truth about what, in the end, ultimately makes a family.


Review: Written from the perspective of an eight year old boy, this novel brought to life the harsh realities faced by a biracial boy abandoned by his mother and sent to foster care in the 1980s.  Leon's voice is pure and authentic and brought me to tears several times throughout the novel.  The story starts with Leon taking care of his baby brother Jake while his mother battles mental health issues and drug addiction.  Leon is broken-hearted when the boys are sent to foster care, but he quickly adjusts to a relatively happy life with Maureen, his doting foster mother, until Jake gets adopted and Leon is left alone.  Leon doesn't understand everything that happens to him, but the author captures his confusion and his love for his brother and his desire to bring his family together again in an authentic and remarkable way.  It was impossible not to fall in love with Leon.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness

The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness
Maddie Dawson

The Survivor's Guide to Family Happiness

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Three women, three lives, and one chance to become a family…whether they want to or not.

Newly orphaned, recently divorced, and semiadrift, Nina Popkin is on a search for her birth mother. She’s spent her life looking into strangers’ faces, fantasizing they’re related to her, and now, at thirty-five, she’s ready for answers.

Meanwhile, the last thing Lindy McIntyre wants is someone like Nina bursting into her life, announcing that they’re sisters and campaigning to track down their mother. She’s too busy with her successful salon, three children, beautiful home, and…oh yes, some pesky little anxiety attacks.

But Nina is determined to reassemble her birth family. Her search turns up Phoebe Mullen, a guarded, hard-talking woman convinced she has nothing to offer. Gradually sharing stories and secrets, the three women make for a messy, unpredictable family that looks nothing like Nina pictured…but may be exactly what she needs. Nina’s moving, ridiculous, tragic, and transcendent journey becomes a love story proving that real family has nothing to do with DNA.


Review: A feel good story about a woman who finds her birth mother and sister and manages to bring them together to build an unusual new family.  It had a few too-good-to-be-true moments, and Nina's attitude was a little too Pollyanna-ish to seem real, but it was an enjoyable and comfortable read.  I will look for other books by this author, because her writing style made me think that I could be friends with her characters.

Rating: 4 stars

Pretty Girls

Pretty Girls
Karin Slaughter

Pretty Girls

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): #1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful thriller from one of the finest suspense writers working today.


Review: Wow, this was a seriously creepy and disturbing psychological thriller!  I picked it up solely because it was on the top 5 list of a Goodreads Listopia list that I've been voting on - What Women Born in the 1970s Have Read So Far This Year.  All I can say is that women born in the 1970s must have a lot higher tolerance for gruesome violence than I do.  I was immediately drawn into the story; the author has an easy to read style that quickly brings the characters to life.  But I found myself having to skip paragraphs because I couldn't handle the graphic descriptions of unimaginable torture and rape.  I read it all the way to the end because I HAD to find out what happened, but overall, it was just too much for me.

Rating: 3 stars

Keep Me Posted

Keep Me Posted
Lisa Beazley

Keep Me Posted

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Two sisters share the surprising highs and cringe-worthy lows of social media fame, when their most private thoughts become incredibly public in this fresh and funny debut novel.

Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday have not done a bang-up job of keeping in touch. In their defense, it hasn’t been easy: life veered in sharply different directions for the once-close sisters. Today, beautiful and big-hearted Sid lives an expat’s life of leisure in far-off Singapore, while harried, iPhone-clutching Cassie can’t seem to make it work as a wife and a mom to twin toddlers in Manhattan.

It doesn't help that Sid spurns all social media while Cassie is addicted to Facebook. So when Sid issues a challenge to reconnect the old-fashioned way—through real, handwritten letters—Cassie figures, why not?

The experiment exceeds both of their expectations, and the letters become a kind of mutual confessional that have real and soul-satisfying effects. And they just might have the power to help Cassie save her marriage, and give Sid the strength to get her life back on track.

But first, one of Cassie’s infamous lapses in judgment comes back to bite her, and all of the letters wind up the one place you’d never, ever want to see them: the Internet...


Review: I am tired of books about women in Manhattan looking down on everyone who doesn't live in Manhattan.  That wasn't the focus of this book, of course, which was about a disorganized and whiny SAHM NYC mom handwriting letters to her sophisticated ex-pat sister who lives in Singapore.  But every so often, Cassie would shoot off these one liners about fat tourists from flyover country that would make me so mad.  Her superior point of view didn't add to the story (other than making her sound even more selfish and pretentious than she already was) so why bother to include them?  Is the author trying to alienate women who don't live in Manhattan?  Seems like that would give her a pretty small reader base...

Anyway, that quibble aside, the premise of this book was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the sisters connect through the hand written letter they mailed each other, which allowed themselves to express their innermost thoughts with an honesty that was missing in their other everyday communications.  However, I found it impossible to like Cassie, given that she is a stay at home mom with a part time nanny, who has the time and money to take yoga and get pedicures every week, and who has no problem shopping for an entirely new wardrobe online just because she feels like it.  If she acted grateful for all these luxuries, that may have been different, but she constantly whines about her life.  I also didn't really buy into the huge drama about her letters going viral - would that really have happened?  No.  Would that have been a big deal in anyone's life?   Probably not.  

Rating: 3 stars

Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.


Review: It was fascinating to learn more about the little known Lithuanian refugees during World War II; I always appreciate a book that teaches me something new about history while telling a compelling story.  I was astonished to learn that this book was based on the true story of the largest maritime disaster of all time; the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which I had never even heard of.  The author has clearly done lots of research about the subject, and managed to bring the story to life in a gripping and tragic way.

However, I had a heard time connecting with the characters, possibly due to the narrative jumping around quickly between the four different narrators.  In the beginning, it was even hard to remember which character was which, and that didn't improve as the story went on.  In my opinion, this book would have been so much better with more depth of character.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Friday, December 30, 2016

The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin

The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin
Stephanie Knipper

The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Sisters Rose and Lily Martin were inseparable when they were kids. As adults, they’ve been estranged for years, until circumstances force them to come together to protect Rose’s daughter. Ten-year-old Antoinette has a severe form of autism that requires constant care and attention. She has never spoken a word, but she has a powerful gift that others would give anything to harness: she can heal things with her touch. She brings wilted flowers back to life, makes a neighbor’s tremors disappear, changes the course of nature on the Kentucky flower farm where she and her mother live.

Antoinette’s gift, though, puts her own life in danger, as each healing comes with an increasingly deadly price. As Rose—the center of her daughter’s life—struggles with her own failing health, and Lily confronts her anguished past, they, and the men who love them, come to realize the sacrifices that must be made to keep this very special child safe.

Written with great heart and a deep understanding of what it feels like to be “different,” The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin is a novel about the lengths to which people will go to protect the ones they love.


Review: Full of beautiful prose

Rating: 4.5 stars

Girl Underwater

Girl Underwater
Claire Kells
Girl Underwater

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): An adventurous debut novel that cross cuts between a competitive college swimmer’s harrowing days in the Rocky Mountains after a major airline disaster and her recovery supported by the two men who love her—only one of whom knows what really happened in the wilderness.

Nineteen-year-old Avery Delacorte loves the water. Growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts, she took swim lessons at her community pool and captained the local team; in high school, she raced across bays and sprawling North American lakes. Now a sophomore on her university’s nationally ranked team, she struggles under the weight of new expectations but life is otherwise pretty good. Perfect, really.

That all changes when Avery’s red-eye home for Thanksgiving makes a ditch landing in a mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies. She is one of only five survivors, which includes three little boys and Colin Shea, who happens to be her teammate. Colin is also the only person in Avery’s college life who challenged her to swim her own events, to be her own person—something she refused to do. Instead she’s avoided him since the first day of freshman year. But now, faced with sub-zero temperatures, minimal supplies, and the dangers of a forbidding nowhere, Avery and Colin must rely on each other in ways they never could’ve imagined.

In the wilderness, the concept of survival is clear-cut. Simple. In the real world, it’s anything but.


Review: This novel was less about how Avery and her companions survive a terrible plane crash in the winter in the Rockies, and more about how Avery handles her survival, how she learns to be a part of her regular world again.  I'm always a sucker for a good disaster book (or movie!) so I would have appreciated having more detail around the plane crash and the survivors' ordeal in the wilderness.  But I enjoyed learning more about the competitive swimming world and watching the relationship between Avery and Colin develop.  The novel is beautifully written, with stunning descriptions, realistic characters and lively dialogue.  It was easy to read, while at the same time completely heart breaking.

Rating: 4.5 stars

We Are All Made of Stars

We Are All Made of Stars
Rowan Coleman
We Are All Made of Stars

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): What if you had just one chance, one letter you could leave behind for the person you love?

What would you write?

Stella Carey has good reason to only work nights at the hospice where she is a nurse. Married to a war veteran who has returned from Afghanistan brutally injured, Stella leaves the house each night as her husband Vincent, locks himself away, unable to sleep due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

During her nights at the hospice, Stella writes letters for her patients containing their final wishes, thoughts and feelings – from how to use a washing machine, to advice on how to be a good parent – and usually she delivers each letter to the recipient he or she has died.

That is until Stella writes one letter that she feels compelled to deliver in time to give her patient one final chance of redemption…


Review: It bothers me when the description of the book doesn't really capture the essence of it, and I have a tendency to knock the rating down because of it.  In this case, the description makes it sound like there is a single narrator, Stella, a nighttime hospice nurse who writes last letters for her dying patients.  In actually, there two other narrators who have storylines almost as important as Stella's.  Hope is a 21 year old woman with cystic fibrosis, who is staying at the hospice while she recovers from a life-threatening infection.  And Hugh is a solitary museum curator, whose story becomes important later in the novel.  Their stories are all interconnected, and I wish that had been acknowledged in the description.  Having said that....

We Are All Made of Stars is a beautifully written, heart-wrenching story about coming to terms with roadblocks in life.  For the patients in Stella's hospice, this can mean asking Stella to write a last letter to a loved one (or a hated neighbor in one case!) expressing a few final thoughts or wishes. In Hope's case, it means coming to terms with living thoroughly the limited life she has left before she succumbs to her illness.  In Stella's case, it means learning to live with her wounded husband who has PTSD, and figuring out whether she can help him heal.  The novel was thought provoking and brought me to tears several times, but I wish it had been less predictable.

Rating: 4 stars

Christmas on Main Street

Christmas on Main Street
JoAnn Ross
Susan Donovan
Luann McLane
Alexis Morgan

Christmas on Main Street (Snowberry Creek, #1.5; Shelter Bay, #6.5; Cricket Creek, #5.5; Bayberry Island, #0.5)

Genre: Christmas Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): ‘Tis the season to fall in love in these four small towns.

In “Christmas in Shelter Bay,” New York Times bestselling author JoAnn Ross returns to Shelter Bay, where Kelli has long tried to keep her feelings for her friend Cole a secret. But when the local matchmakers conspire to send them to a secluded lakeside cabin, the two friends soon discover that a little love will keep them warm.

TV producer Nathaniel Ravelle knows the Bayberry Island mermaid legend is a joke— how could a statue grant a wish for true love? But when a Christmas Nor’easter lands him in close quarters with local Annie Parker, they see magic at work in matters of the heart in New York Times bestselling author Susan Donovan’s “A Seaside Christmas.”

In LuAnn McLane’s “Mistletoe on Main Street,” Clint isn’t sure how to rekindle his romance with high school sweetheart Ava—until his father bows out of playing Santa at the annual Cricket Creek holiday parade and Clint gets the chance to make this Christmas one to remember.

And in Alexis Morgan’s “The Christmas Gift”, business is booming at Bridey Roke’s pastry shop. Everyone in town stops in to sample her holiday treats. But in her spare moments, she’s perfecting a special recipe to charm the handsome new neighbor—who has his own surprise gift for her come Christmas Eve!


Review: An easy to read collection of cheerful Christmas romances, just right for reading in front of a roaring fire.  Each novella is set in an already existing storybook town, which can be a bit confusing if the reader has never read the other books in the series, but each novella did stand alone.  I particularly enjoyed Donovan's story set in the town with the crazy mermaid ladies - some very funny images!

Rating: 3 stars (for a romance)

Candlelight Christmas

Candlelight Christmas
Susan Wiggs

Candlelight Christmas

Genre: Christmas Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR SUSAN WIGGS INVITES YOU TO AN UNFORGETTABLE CHRISTMAS IN THE CATSKILLS

A single father who yearns to be a family man, Logan O'Donnell is determined to create the perfect Christmas for his son, Charlie. The entire O'Donnell clan arrives to spend the holidays in Avalon, a postcard-pretty town on the shores of Willow Lake, a place for the family to reconnect and rediscover the special gifts of the season.

One of the guests is a newcomer to Willow Lake— Darcy Fitzgerald. Sharp-witted, independent and intent on guarding her heart, she's the last person Logan can see himself falling for. And Darcy is convinced that a relationship is the last thing she needs this Christmas.

Yet between the snowy silence of the winter woods, and toasty moments by a crackling fire, their two lonely hearts collide. The magic of the season brings them each a gift neither ever expected—a love to last a lifetime.


Review: Year ago I read several books in Susan Wiggs' Willow Lake series, and I really enjoyed them, so it was nice to pick up another book in the series and revisit the quaint town and friendly neighbors living in the Catskills.  This book was a quick and charming read about spunky and sporty city girl Darcy, who falls in love with loving single father Logan.  While I liked how Wiggs brought Darcy and Logan almost together in the years leading up to the perfect Christmas described in this book, the romance still felt a little quick.  But overall a fun to read, feel good Christmas story.

Rating: 4 stars (for a romance)

Starry Night

Starry Night
Debbie Macomber

Starry Night

Genre: Christmas Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): ’Tis the season for romance, second chances, and Christmas cheer with this new novel from Debbie Macomber.

Carrie Slayton, a big-city society-page columnist, longs to write more serious news stories. So her editor hands her a challenge: She can cover any topic she wants, but only if she first scores the paper an interview with Finn Dalton, the notoriously reclusive author.

Living in the remote Alaskan wilderness, Finn has written a mega-bestselling memoir about surviving in the wild. But he stubbornly declines to speak to anyone in the press, and no one even knows exactly where he lives.

Digging deep into Finn’s past, Carrie develops a theory on his whereabouts. It is the holidays, but her career is at stake, so she forsakes her family celebrations and flies out to snowy Alaska. When she finally finds Finn, she discovers a man both more charismatic and more stubborn than she even expected. And soon she is torn between pursuing the story of a lifetime and following her heart.

Filled with all the comforts and joys of Christmastime, Starry Night is a delightful novel of finding happiness in the most surprising places.


Review: Debbie Macomber's books are always sweet, heart warming, and full of Christmas cheer, and this one is no exception.  So why the average rating?  I guess I had a hard time buying that two such polar opposites would be attracted to each other after finding themselves stuck together for a short period of time.  I couldn't help wondering whether they would actually be happy living together for the long term.  I guess I'm too realistic and not a sappy romantic anymore.

Rating: 3 stars (for a romance)

An Outlaw's Christmas

An Outlaw's Christmas
Linda Lael Miller

An Outlaw's Christmas (McKettricks, #15)

Genre: Christmas Romance

Summary (from Goodreads): With his wild heart, Sawyer McKettrick isn't ready to settle down on the Triple M family ranch in Arizona. So he heads to Blue River, Texas, to seek a job as marshal. But in a blinding snowstorm he's injured—and collapses into the arms of a prim and proper lady in calico.The shirtless, bandaged stranger recuperating in teacher Piper St. James's room behind the schoolhouse says he's a McKettrick, but he looks like an outlaw. As they wait out the storm, the handsome loner has Piper remembering long-ago dreams of marriage and motherhood. But for how long is Sawyer willing to call Blue River home?

As the gray skies clear, Piper's one holiday wish just might bring two lonely hearts together forever.


Review: Years ago I read several of Miller's books about the McKettrick family, so it was fun to revisit them in this cute little Christmas romance.  I always enjoy Miller's writing style, and the story was engaging and zippy.  The heroine, Piper, is a likeable headstrong woman, who has met her match in handsome cowboy Sawyer.  A sweet and heartwarming story full of Christmas cheer.

Rating: 4 stars (for a romance)

The Christmas Cookie Collection

The Christmas Cookie Collection
Lori Wilde

The Christmas Cookie Collection (Twilight, Texas, #4.1)

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Four delightful novellas featuring characters from Lori Wilde's New York Times bestselling book The First Love Cookie Club. First published as e-originals, they are now available in one volume and in print for the first time

Review: Four easy to read short stories about couples finding love in Wilde's fictional town of Twilight, Texas.  I enjoyed the stories, but think that some of them would have been better if they had been longer and had more detail.  It felt like too much was crammed in a short story.

Rating: 3 stars

Christmas at Twilight

Christmas at Twilight
Lori Wilde

Christmas at Twilight (Twilight, Texas, #5)

Genre: Romance, Christmas

Summary (from Goodreads): It's Christmas in Twilight, Texas. The Cookie Club is baking, the town is decorated, and Delta Force Operator "Hutch" Hutchinson has finally, reluctantly, returned home . . .

. . . only to get pepper sprayed by the delicious- looking stranger who's taken over his house. She says her name is Jane, and she immediately sets down ground rules. Top priority: no touching. For Hutch that isn't easy—he was wounded in action, but one part is still working very well.

Then Hutch learns the truth. Jane harbors a frightening secret—she's really Meredith Sommers, on the run from a dangerous ex-husband and desperately in need of the safety Hutch can provide. In that moment, he vows he'd do anything in his power to protect her. And as Christmas approaches, they discover that their love can conquer the past and overcome any obstacle—but what price will they pay?


Review: This was a sweet little book to read before Christmas; I had never read a romance by this author, and I enjoyed her writing style.  The characters were well developed, the plot was interesting, the writing was smooth, and the dialogue was realistic.  There was definitely a little bit of descriptive hanky panky going on, so be forewarned before you pick it up.  My only complaints were that the author has incorporated a lot of issues in this book (bipolar disorder, PTSD, and domestic violence) and that she brought in a lot of miscellaneous characters that aren't important to the story and get a little confusing (which makes sense when you realize that she has a series of books about the people in this town, and she's trying to update the reader about their lives, a la Debbie Macomber).

If I'm in the mood for a romance novel, I would definitely choose another by Lori Wilde.

Rating: 4 stars (for a romance)

My Name is Lucy Barton

My Name is Lucy Barton
Elizabeth Strout

My Name Is Lucy Barton

Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy's childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lies the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy's life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters.

Review: I feel like this is the kind of book that will be described as insightful and brilliant, contemplative and poignant, but I'm afraid that I just didn't get it.  It probably would have helped if I had read it when I was healthy, instead of reading it while I had a sinus infection that left my brain feeling like it was floating in a cloud.  I think the reader needs to be in full possession of her faculties to absorb all the intricacies of this book.

The plot is simple - Lucy spends nine weeks in the hospital recovering from illness, feeling lonely and bored because she has few visitors.  Her estranged mother comes to visit for a few days, staying by her bedside the entire time and gossiping about acquaintances from their hometown.  That's the entire plot.  Strout takes the reader inside Lucy's head, reminiscing about her childhood, her early adulthood, and even times after her hospital stay.  I found it confusing that Lucy jumped around in time so much, and I wish she had provided more detailed recollections, especially for major life events.  She admits that she was abused, but we don't find out why; she seems to have a troubled relationship with her husband, but we don't exactly find out why or when that starts; at the end, we realize that she doesn't have the best relationship with her daughters, but again, we don't know why.  I had a lot of questions, and the book didn't provide many answers.  Having said that, I liked Lucy's voice; I enjoyed her realistic vagueness about some memories; I appreciated her way of talking as if to a friend.  I think there was probably a deeper level to appreciate this book, and I didn't get there.

It probably didn't help that I checked this out from the library, renewed it the maximum amount of times, and thought I lost it.  I looked all over the house and the car and was resigned to paying the library for it, when Amelia found it in her collection of books in her room.  So now I have to take it back to the library and pay about $10 in overdue fines.  For a book I didn't understand.  It's frustrating...

Rating: 3 stars

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Best Books of 2016



Here are my top 10 books that I read in 2016 but not necessarily published in 2016.  They are in no particular order.

Small Great Things  by Jodi Picoult

This book opened up my eyes to so much of the every day racism in the US that most people don't even realize is happening.  You can read my review here.


The Book of the Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez


I read this book for a book club and loved how it presented the fictional lives of people who immigrated to the US and how difficult it was to survive here.  You can read my review here.

Come Away with Me by Karma Brown


This book was heartbreaking but you have to get to the end to really love the book.  You can read my review here.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah


This was a historical fiction book set in Word War II but told about what happened in France during that time.  This book moved me to tears with its tragic story.  You can read my review here.

Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon


This story was so difficult to read because it was about a school shooting but it was so emotional and addicting.  You can read my review here.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

This book makes you think about what could have been and shows Alice's struggle to fix wrongs in the past.  You can read my review here.

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book was full of romance but also of grief.  It is a fast paced, quick read.  You can read my review here.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer


I really like memoirs and this ones was about a woman who had escaped from the FLDS hold.  You can read my review here.

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper


This book is a juvenile fiction book but very thought provoking.  You get a look inside the mind of girl who is unable to communicate and then see how her world changes when she finally has the chance to "talk."  You can read my review here.

Defending Jacob by William Landay


This was a great courtroom drama book that will have you hooked. You can read my review here.

Small Great Things

Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience.   During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient.  The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch her child.  The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is along in the nursery.  Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime.  Kennedy McQuarie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy.  Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family-especially her teenage son-as the case becomes a media sensation.  As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others-and themselves-might be wrong.
from the book jacket

Review: This book was hard to read but not because it was poorly written but because of the subject material.  It was difficult because it challenges the reader to consider and confront their thoughts on races, racism, prejudice, and white privilege.  There were so many times that I was angry and didn't want to keep reading because of how mad I was at the characters.  There were other times I wanted to put the book down because I didn't think there could be a happy outcome to the book knowing Picoult's writing style.  There were times that I was in tears and feeling so much empathy towards a character.  This was not an easy book but one that really has made me question my actions, my thoughts, and opened my eyes to the injustices in America, both small and large.

Ruth is an African-American nurse who was not to touch a white child bu the baby goes into distress.  Later Ruth is charged with a crime of hurting the baby .  This baby was the child of white supremacists, Turk and Brit Bauer.  The story is told in alternating perspectives from Ruth's to Turk's to Kennedy's, Ruth's white public defender.  During the Turk chapters, my blood boiled at how hateful and spiteful Turk's and his acquaintances' views were on anyone who wasn't a white Aryan Christian and how wrong I thought they were.  It is so heartbreaking to know that there are people out there who truly believe that the white race is superior to others.  I know this book is fictional but there are certainly people like Turk and Brit out there and probably more than I think there are.  I did like that Picoult included an author's note at the end of the book to talk about how she came to write the book, her struggle with confronting her own views, and her research into the white supremacist movement.

But this book is more than just the outward racism by white supremacists.  It is also about the daily prejudices against those who aren't white by society in general.  Ruth's lawyer, Kennedy, would not consider herself to be racist but Ruth teachers her so much throughout this book.  Before reading this book I didn't really get what white privilege is but this book has opened my eyes to what I do have and made me wonder what I can and should do, as well as what others should do, to change our culture.  This should be a must read book!

**I received this book in a giveaway through GoodReads but that did not affect my honest review of this book.

Rating: 5 stars

Circling the Sun

Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  This powerful novel transports readers to the breathtaking world of Out of Africa-1920s Kenya-and reveals the extraordinary adventures of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time.  Brought to Kenya from England by pioneering parents dreaming of a new life on an African farm, Beryl is raised unconventionally, developing a fierce will and a love of all things wild.  But after everything she knows and trusts dissolves, headstrong young Beryl is flung into a string of disastrous relationships, then becomes caught up in a passionate love triangle with the irresistible safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Baroness Karen Blixen.  Brave and audacious and contradictory, Beryl will risk everything to have Denys's love, but it's ultimately her own heart she must conquer to embrace her true calling and her destiny: to fly.
from the back of the book

Review:  At the beginning of this story I was caught up in Beryl's early life in Africa in the colony of Kenya.  The description of what life was like and the experiences that Beryl had were intriguing and so different from other things that I have read.  I did not realize the Beryl Markham was a real person and that this book is based on her real experiences.  The story slowed down for me when she started to train horses and got caught up in society which seemed to be who was sleeping with who.  I found it hard to keep track of the characters when I was listening to the audio version.  I had the book at the same time so I would go back and reread sections to try to figure out who was married to who and who they were sleeping with (which was not the same!)  Then the story picked up again and things seemed to move very quickly through her second marriage and her desire to start flying.  I wish that there was more of a connection between the prologue/epilogue which is about her historic flight and the rest of the book.  We hardly hear about her learning to fly and what made her want to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean from east to west.  I did enjoy learning about life in Kenya but I wish the story had been more captivating.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Japanese Lover

The Japanese Lover
by Isabel Allende

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family, like thousands of other Japanese Americans are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.

Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco's charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home. As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.
from GoodReads

Review:  This book has been on my list to read for a while after someone in my book club suggested it.  I enjoy World War II historical fiction and have read a book or two about the Japanese internment camps before.  This book wasn't as good as the other books I have read on this topic.  I liked the addition of the present day story with the look back as to what happened to Alma and Ichimei earlier in their lives.  There was also the side story of Irina which I also found interesting as Irina was an interesting character.  I'm having a hard time putting my finger on what it was about the book that I did not connect to.  Perhaps the momentum of the story slowed down towards the middle of the book and that made me get a little bored of it or perhaps the author did not reveal enough about what was going on in a timely fashion.  There was also the jumping around in time periods which left me somewhat confused (although I did realize that I forgot to pause my audiobook at some point and it kept on going while I ran an errand!  Oops!)  It was a good story but not as captivating as other books I've read about WWII.

Rating:  3.5 stars

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Weight of Small Things

The Weight of Small Things
by Sherri Wood Emmons

Genre: Chick Lit

Synopsis:  Corrie Phillips has an enviable life—even if it’s not quite the one she wanted. She enjoys working at her university alumni magazine, her house is beautiful, and her husband, Mark, is attentive, handsome, and wealthy. But after years of frustration and failed attempts, Corrie is desperate for a child—and haunted by the choices in her past. 

A decade ago, just after college, Corrie’s boyfriend Daniel left town, intent on saving the world even if it meant breaking Corrie’s heart. Now he’s returned, and despite her misgivings, Corrie feels drawn to him again. But the emotions that overwhelm her may put her marriage and her secure, stable life at risk. Faced with an unexpected choice, Corrie must unravel illusion from reality at last and weigh what she most needs against what her heart has always wanted.
from GoodReads

Review:  This story is about two women, Corrie and Bryn, and their relationships with the men in their lives and the challenges that arise.  I thought that the characters lacked depth because their actions did not seem to fit with their character but instead happened because it moved the plot along and created problems.  Everyone seemed overly nice and accomodating.  It was a little sappy at times.  I read a review that this was like a Lifetime movie and I would agree.  There was a lot that was going on and it was all wrapped up very neatly.

Rating: 3 stars

Thursday, December 8, 2016

The Virgin Blue

The Virgin Blue
by Tracy Chevalier



Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  Meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin—two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy. When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own. Village life turns out to be less idyllic than she expected, however, and a peculiar dream of the color blue propels her on a quest to uncover her family’s French ancestry. As the novel unfolds—alternating between Ella’s story and that of Isabelle du Moulin four hundred years earlier—a common thread emerges that unexpectedly links the two women. Part detective story, part historical fiction, The Virgin Blue is a novel of passion and intrigue that compels readers to the very last page.
from GoodReads

Review:  I listened to this book in the car and I struggled with it a bit because there was so much French in it that never was translated into English.  If I had been reading the book, I could have looked some up on the internet and had it translated.  There seemed to be stanzas in French that were important to the story (one of the Psalms) and that I was missing out on.  I also had a problem with the book because Ella was looked down on so much by the French people in the small town in which she lived and it made me dislike the setting so much plus I didn't really like Ella's whining.  I was intrigued by the story of Isabelle and I wish that I could have just fast forwarded to the chapters about her.  Although even Isabelle's story slowed down in the middle.  There were a lot of details that I just didn't follow in the historical part but perhaps that is because I know absolutely nothing about the 1600s in France.  I feel that there could have been more explanation of what was going on but then I also felt that the story didn't move fast enough for me.  Towards the end, I thought I was going to have to abandon the book because of something horrible that I thought was going to happen.  I just couldn't handle what I thought was to come.  But something slightly different happened and it wasn't described at all so I wasn't as emotionally torn apart as I thought I would be.

Rating: 2 stars

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Britt-Marie Was Here

Britt-Marie Was Here
by Fredrik Backman

Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Britt-Marie can't stand mess.  A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins.  She begins her day at 6 a.m. because only lunatics wake up later than that.  And she is not passive-aggressive.  Not in the least  It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention.  She is not one to judge others-no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be.

But hidden inside this socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart than anyone around her realize.

When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg-of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it-she is more than a little unprepared.  Employed as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center, the fastidious Britt-Marie has to cope with muddy floors, unruly children, and a (literal) rat for a roommate.  She finds her herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, and layabouts-and a handsome local policeman whose romantic attentions to Britt-Marie are as unmistakable as they are unwanted.  Most alarming of all, she's given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children's soccer team to victory.  In this small town of bighearted misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?
from the book jacket

Review:  I was hesitant to pick this book up but something drew me to checking it out from the library.  I started reading it and I found Britt-Marie to be very quirky but intriguing.  I started reading and found myself liking her character with all the eccentricities.  Once Britt-Marie got to Borg, I became much less interested in the book as I was really confused by the other characters in the story and the book became way to quirky for my taste.  For someone who appreciate the quirks in people, I'm sure this would be a much better fit for them.

Rating: abandonded

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland
by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus
with Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan


Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction

Synopsis:  On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry made headlines around the world when she fled a Cleveland home and called 911, saying: "Help me, I'm Amanda Berry...I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for ten years."

A horrifying story rapidly unfolded.  Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver, had separately lured Berry and two other young women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, to his home, where he trapped them and kept them chained.  In the decade that followed, the three were frequently raped, psychologically abused, and threatened with death if they attempted to escape.  Years after she was taken, Berry had a daughter by their captor, a child she bravely raised as normally as possible under impossible conditions.

Drawing upon their recollections and the diary kept by Amanda Berry, Berry and Gina DeJesus describe the unimaginable torment they suffered and the strength and resourcefulness that enabled them to survive.  Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post reporters Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan interweave the events within Castro's house with original reporting on the efforts to find the missing girls.  The full story behind the headlines-including details never previously released on Castro's life and motivations-Hope is a harrowing yet inspiring chronicle of two women whose courage and ingenuity ultimately delivered them back to their lives and families.
from the book jacket

Review:  I don't know why but I find memoirs such as these very intriguing.  I really love to see how people overcome such horrible tragedies, maintain positive attitudes and hope, and move on with their lives with such positivity and determination.  I certainly wish that things like this never happened to anyone and I am so glad that the end result was freedom.  These two women showed their strength over and over again in this book and I admire them and the survivors that they are.  Amanda and Gina speak frankly about what their lives were like during the ten years (for Amanda) that they were held captive.  The entries are written from journal entries that Amanda kept so most of the story is written in short snippets.  Between the journal entries from Amanda and Gina were short articles and stories written from the outside perspective.  The writing style in both the diary entries and the short articles is fairly simplistic and I had to remind myself that Amanda was abducted at the age of 16 and Gina at the age of 14 and therefore unfortunately missed out on schooling (Gina mentions late in the book after she escaped that she didn't finish 7th grade so she had to make up a lot of education at the age of 23 so she could finish high school).  I do wish that Michelle Knight would have co-authored the book as well so we could have gotten her perspective of being in the house but I may need to read her book to hear her side and what happened to her since she was held captive the longest.

Rating: 4 stars