Into The Water

I was so excited for Into the Water you guys. I tore through Girl on the Train back in 2015 and spent the last few months impatiently waiting to get my hands on this book from my local library.

I finally got the notice that my copy was available 2 weeks ago and immediately started on it. And immediately stalled out. There are so many characters and Hawkins felt the need to write chapters from each one's point of view! Add to the constantly shifting narrative the fact that this is one of those stories where you are dropped into the middle, after the biggest events have occurred and it just made for such a confusing read.

There's a story here, a good one, but it's lost in so many layers of alternating POV's that it just gets to be too much. I love the whole unreliable-narrator-with-a-twist-ending thing that's so trendy right now, but this one just tries way too hard and, as a result, it all falls flat. The book drags and drags at the beginning and then at the end the conclusion feels so, so rushed.

I didn't consciously realize I was avoiding the book until 3 days ago when I got the "your items are about to expire" auto-email from my library. With a wait-list as long as they have for Into the Water, I didn't want to be that person and keep the book past its due date so I powered through the last 2/3 and finished up late last night.

I know it must be daunting to have such a great success as Paula Hawkins did with her first book and then to have to try to follow that up. So I'm going to give her some credit. As I said before, there's a damned good story here. And maybe if I'd had the time to sit down and just read it in one or 2 large chunks rather than a chapter here and a chapter there every day instead, I'd have enjoyed it more. It's a busy time of year right now and I've got a lot on my plate, so I'm totally willing to take some of the blame for lack of enthusiasm over this novel. That said, I really hope Hawkins' third book is better.

Anyway, enough of my bitching - here's a summary so you can see if you might be interested in reading this one too:

Jules and Nel had been estranged for years. When Nel drowns, Jules travels back to their childhood vacation home in Beckford where Nel has been living, to take care of her now-orphaned niece Lena. Once back in town, she realizes that something deeper is going on. Did Nel kill herself, as everyone seems to believe, or was she pushed? Does her death have anything to do with the suicide-by-drowning of Lena's best friend only a month earlier? Or does it have to do with the book she was writing about the very spot where she, and so many other women in the town's history, died?

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

I stumbled upon Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Stories of Extraordinary Women by Elena Favili at my local library and fell in love with it. Each "story" is a mini-biography of a different woman written in the style of a classic fairy tale - openers range from "once upon a time" to "a long time ago." Each story is written simply enough for a child to understand, yet simultaneously not dumbed down so as to be tedious for an adult reader and is accompanied by a picture of the subject, as well as an inspirational quote. This book is at the absolute top of my Christmas list for my daughter.

No Middle Name

I first discovered Lee Child sometime around 2010. At the time I was still working in Northern Virginia and living way out in northern central Virginia. My commute was around 100 miles round trip and, for those of you who have experienced that area's traffic, you know that means I had a loooooong commute. Like close to 4 hours a day in the car, 5 days a week. To keep from going insane, I listened to a LOT of audiobooks.

My local library had tons of books on CD and I went through them at a rate of 2-3 per week. I quickly went through their collection of authors I was already a fan of and books I had on my to-read list. I noticed The Killing Floor was a recommended listen one week when I was in picking up my latest stack and decided to give it a try. I loved it. I was totally sucked in to the world of Jack none Reacher. The books in the series quickly became favorites to listen to on my commute.

My life has changed a lot since those days. I moved to Oklahoma and stopped commuting so far - these days I'm a stay-at-home mom and Etsy-shopkeep and it takes me about a year to put the same number of miles on my car now that I used to accumulate in under a month and I rarely listen to audiobooks anymore. I still love Jack Reacher though and I still eagerly anticipate each year's newest installment in his world courtesy of Lee Child.

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories is a short story collection you can read at any point in the series - none of the stories are reliant on any of the books. I've read other short story collections tied in to book series before and I have to say, this one is, by far, the best I've read. Other authors have made the mistake of putting vital information into the stories that make subsequent novels difficult to follow or create collections that must be read in a specific order and in between specific books to be fully comprehensible. Not so with No Middle Name. Each story stands alone as either a mini Reacher adventure (Second Son, Too Much Time) or simply as character background filler (No Room at the Motel, Everyone Talks). Even the stories that are barely about Reacher (James Penney's New Identity) serve a purpose. I might even recommend this collection to anyone who hasn't yet picked up a Reacher novel as a quick intro to the character and to Child's writing style.

I really loved this collection. It almost makes the wait to the newest Reacher novel bearable. Almost.

Blame

Blame is the latest offering from one of my favorites, Jeff Abbott, and it does not disappoint. The last few years have been all about the Sam Capra series and, while I love Sam's ongoing adventures and escapades, I was so ready for a new standalone Abbott novel.

Nobody does suspense quite like Jeff Abbott. He has a way of sucking you in to the story and just refusing to let go. The only bad thing about this book was how long it took me to read it. If I'd had my way, I'd have probably read through it cover to cover in one sitting. Sadly, I have responsibilities so I found myself having to take my time with it.

Blame is the story of Jane Norton and her memory. Imagine you woke up one day and didn't know who you were. There are people all around telling you they're your family, they're your friends, but you don't remember anything. That's what happened to Jane. After a devastating car crash that killed David, the boy next door and put Jane into a coma, she wakes up with severe amnesia. Slowly she recovers the memories from the first 14 years of her life, but the last 3 are a blank. All she knows about the accident that nearly killed her is that everyone thinks it was her fault - that she tried to kill herself and David. Two years later, she gets a disturbing message - "I know what you claim you don't remember, Jane. I know what happened that night. And I'm going to tell. All will pay."

Jane resolves to find out what really happened that night. Did she try to commit suicide? Is she guilty of murdering her oldest friend? Or is something much more twisted going on?

I can't gush enough over how much I loved this one. If you're a fan of suspense, don't miss this book. It's fantastic.

The Cuban Affair

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Cuban Affair is the latest offering from Nelson DeMille. If you're a fan of DeMille's John Corey books, you'll almost certainly like this novel - the hero, Mac, is basically John Corey with a  different background. Honestly, the two characters are so similar in speech and personality that I found myself distracted throughout the entire book wondering why DeMille even created Mac when he could have just as easily had John retire to Key West and buy a boat.

At any rate, it's a solid story. Mac is a charter boat captain with a mortgaged boat he can't afford. Along comes Sarah, a Cuban-American beauty who offers him a few million dollars to help her out with a top secret fortune recovery mission in Cuba.

There's a lot of information about Cuba in this book but it never comes off as travelogue-y, which it might have in less experienced, less skilled hands. It's a slow build to the action, but once it gets going, you won't be able to put it down. I've got a hunch this is just the first installment in a new franchise from DeMille and, if I'm right, I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series.

We Were 8 Years In Power

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ta-Nehisi Coates first hit my radar a few years ago when his book, Between the World and Me was blowing up the bestseller lists. When I saw he had this new book coming out I immediately requested a copy from the publisher and crossed my fingers. Happily, my request was approved and I dove right in the same weekend the city of Charlotteville in my home state of Virginia was overrun by white supremacists.

We Were 8 Years in Power: An American Tragedy, takes its name from a speech given in 1895 by South Carolina congressman Thomas Miller. He stated,

"We were eight years in power. We had built schoolhouses, established charitable institutions, built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided for the education of the deaf and dumb, rebuilt the ferries. In short, we had reconstructed the State and place it upon the road to prosperity."

Coates takes this quote and ties his collection of essays together around it. The format is simple - a re-printing of 8 of his pieces from The Atlantic, one for each year of the Obama presidency, along with a reflective introduction to each. Coates is hard on himself when it comes to his earlier work and is unflinchingly honest about why he believes he's been a success. At times he gives himself too little credit and forgets (or is too humble to admit) that at least part of his success is due to his great talent for writing. There is a progression in skill to be seen here, but the raw talent for the written word shines through from even the earliest piece.  

I could actually write about this book for days. I loved it. I think everyone should read it with an open mind. I think it's going to be polarizing though because a lot of white people are going to hate it. Coates is unafraid of peeling back the mask and showing the ugly supremacist foundation our country has been built on and refuses to acknowledge. He tackles racism head on and doesn't sugar-coat his feelings in deference to white fragility. Some will find that hard to swallow. Sadly, those are the ones who need to absorb his message the most. 

I read that Coates is now working on an historical fiction novel. I can't wait to add it to my to-read stack as soon as the title and pre-order date are released.

We Were 8 Years In Power will be available at all booksellers on October 3, 2017.

Public Relations

                                        

Public Relations by Katie Heaney and Arianna Rebolini tells the story of  Rose Reed, an up and coming publicist at the fast paced fictional PR firm of Weaver-Girard. Desperate to impress her hard-to-read boss Joanna, Rose is an anxiety riddled mess who happens to be a bit of a genius when it comes to music PR. She gets the chance to sit in on a meeting with Archie Fox, an obvious Harry Styles stand-in, who is in serious need of a career boost and manages to impress him with her idea - a staged romance between Archie and too-cool-for-life new artist Raya. As time goes on though, Rose starts to feel like maybe a real romance is in order with her as the leading lady..

Public Relations is one of those books that needs to be a movie. It's a fast-paced, ridiculously over the top, full of cliches, romantic comedy that somehow just works. There are parts that I hated (for the love of god, don't base your hero on such an easily identifiable real-life guy!!!) but mostly I loved it.

I did have a few issues (of course). I would have been so much more impressed if Rose's issues had been dealt with more. Why is she so anxious? Why does she have so little self-confidence when she's clearly very gifted at what she does? As is too common in these sorts of books (spoiler alert!) the focus is mainly on the heroine getting her man by the end and less on the heroine becoming a complete, healthy, independent, successful human being. This book, like so many others out there, sends that tired old message that says you can't be complete unless you've landed yourself a man.

Also: Harry Styles? Really? The obviousness of the real-life counterpart took me out of the story a lot. A lot a lot. That aspect of the book made it less like a "real" novel and more like fanfic. And don't get me wrong - I like fanfic. Well-written fanfic has its place. Just not in a book you pay money for. At times I felt like I was intruding on the authors' private fantasies and it felt kind of squicky.

The writing is strong enough to overcome the books flaws in the end and I highly recommend this one. And I seriously do hope it gets picked up and becomes a movie. It would be an excellent addition to the genre of rom-coms that everyone loves to bitch about but also secretly watches every time they're on tv (I'm looking at you 27 Dresses).