Short post today - I mentioned a few days ago that I had gotten an advance copy of The Reckoning, the newest book by John Grisham. As usual, I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
I finished it up this afternoon and wanted to post a quick review while it's fresh in my mind.
You know the expression, "he could read the phone book and it would still be fascinating?" That's how I feel about this book. John Grisham is such a strong writer that he can write on just about anything and make it interesting and compelling. That's certainly the case with his latest book, The Reckoning.
Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. But if I'm honest, there wasn't much plot. More of a beautiful recounting of one family's unending tragedy. As always with Grisham, the settings and characters are wonderfully rendered with just the right amount of detail. The major difference with this book is just that the whole story felt a little phoned in and the ending was very abrupt and a little unsatisfying.
Three stars for this one instead of my usual 4 or 5.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
And.... I'm Back!
After a long absence, it's looking like I finally have time to read and review again! Here's a quick catch-up on what I've been reading so far this year (new books and old ones):
Harry Potter. Yep - that's right. You heard me. I finally read the damned things. And I liked them. Look, I'm never going to understand the whole dressing up and waiting in line in the middle of the night thing these books inspired, but they are good. Definitely better than the movies. In fact, reading the books may have ruined the movies for me. Dammit.
Harry Bosch. I've read books from this universe here and there over the years, but this year I sat down with a list of all of Michael Connelly's books, in order, and started really making my way through them all. I don't always agree with Detective Bosch, but if I'm ever murdered, I hope the detective on the case is just like him. I'm about halfway through the series and hoping to finish up early next year.
Jack Reacher. I was lucky enough to score an advance copy of the latest book in this fantastic series by Lee Child - Past Tense - and I loved it. Fans of the series will find it a great addition to Reacher's adventures. Never read any of these books before? Check them out.
Baby Teeth. This debut novel by Zoje Stage blew me away. I received an advance copy from the publisher back in February and then had to wait and wait and wait for it to be released months later in July. In the meantime, I told every single person I know that they had to read this book. It's Gone Girl meets The Bad Seed. I was up all night finishing this one.
Of course there have been lots of other books this year, but those are the stand-outs for me. I just got my hands on the new John Grisham, so look for my thoughts on that in a week or two!
Monday, February 5, 2018
Surprise Me
Oh Sophie Kinsella. You're killing me.
After last year's fantastic My Not So Perfect Life, I had such high hopes for Surprise Me. It seemed like Kinsella has shrugged off the absolute disaster that the Shopaholic books have become and gotten her groove back. I was so excited to read another fun, fabulous, old-school-chick-lit, fluffy masterpiece and instead, I got, well, surprised.
Surprise Me tells the story of Sylvie and Dan, the happiest couple who never communicate that ever did exist. It all starts out when they go for an insurance checkup and the doctor tells them they can both expect to live another 68 or so years. Worried they'll get bored with each other, they decide to start surprising each other with random gifts and activities to keep things fresh. Along the way they have to work out the wallpapered-over cracks in their marriage and learn to be honest with each other.
I wanted to love this book but just couldn't. Sylvie is so... I don't know. She's just such a waste for most of the book. I found myself wanting to scream at her. If it had been possible to reach into the book, take her by the shoulders and shake her, I would have. And Dan. Dan's not much better. Dude. If you're going to have a secret cell phone and be moody and defensive and never tell your wife anything, you can't get pissed if she accuses you of having an affair.
The entire plot of the book could have been dealt with in less than 10 pages if these two characters had been half as in-sync as Sylvie spends the first few chapters wanting us to believe they are.
Still, the end was nice and there is a lot of character development which is always good when the characters have been so incredibly frustrating for most of the book. I still love Kinsella and (most of) her books.
Legally required disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
After last year's fantastic My Not So Perfect Life, I had such high hopes for Surprise Me. It seemed like Kinsella has shrugged off the absolute disaster that the Shopaholic books have become and gotten her groove back. I was so excited to read another fun, fabulous, old-school-chick-lit, fluffy masterpiece and instead, I got, well, surprised.
Surprise Me tells the story of Sylvie and Dan, the happiest couple who never communicate that ever did exist. It all starts out when they go for an insurance checkup and the doctor tells them they can both expect to live another 68 or so years. Worried they'll get bored with each other, they decide to start surprising each other with random gifts and activities to keep things fresh. Along the way they have to work out the wallpapered-over cracks in their marriage and learn to be honest with each other.
I wanted to love this book but just couldn't. Sylvie is so... I don't know. She's just such a waste for most of the book. I found myself wanting to scream at her. If it had been possible to reach into the book, take her by the shoulders and shake her, I would have. And Dan. Dan's not much better. Dude. If you're going to have a secret cell phone and be moody and defensive and never tell your wife anything, you can't get pissed if she accuses you of having an affair.
The entire plot of the book could have been dealt with in less than 10 pages if these two characters had been half as in-sync as Sylvie spends the first few chapters wanting us to believe they are.
Still, the end was nice and there is a lot of character development which is always good when the characters have been so incredibly frustrating for most of the book. I still love Kinsella and (most of) her books.
Legally required disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Monday, January 22, 2018
This Is Not A Love Letter
I have this habit of requesting galleys in batches. I read a ton of book descriptions, request the ones that look interesting (and that I think I can fit into my reading schedule in time for publication) and then promptly forget all about them.
Sometimes it takes a week or two for publishers to get back to you with a yes or a no and then it can be another few months even before I download and read a given book. I try not to read them too far in advance of publication because most of the time, publishers want the review to go live at around the same time that the book becomes available.
All that is to say that by the time I finally got around to reading This Is Not A Love Letter, by Kim Purcell, I had totally and completely, 100% forgotten what the heck it was about. I went into the book blind and I'm actually really happy about that.
First, the required stuff: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Ok, now that that's over with. I loved this book! It was so riveting. If I'm being totally honest, I wasn't expecting much - I've been off YA for a while now and so by the time I needed to start reading it, I was not really looking forward to it at all, thinking it was going to be your average girl/boy YA love drama. I was so, so wrong.
This Is Not A Love Letter is a cross between The Girl on the Train and Me Before You. For real. It's all about these two teenagers - Jesse and Chris. Jesse is basically poor white trash with a hoarder mother and Chris is the local star baseball player with a bright future and unlimited potential. They live in a small, very white, economically depressed paper mill town in the Pacific Northwest. And Chris is black.
Chris and Jesse are in love but Jesse is worried she's going to hold Chris back so she tells him she wants a one week break. She wants for them to both gain some perspective and figure out what they'll do next year when Chris goes off to college and she stays behind to work for a year. Chris takes it badly and then disappears. Jesse is convinced he's been jumped or worse but can't seem to rally support at first. Most people want to believe he's just run off for a few days.
It's hard to describe much of this book without giving a lot away. Just know that it's super fast-paced and that I could not put it down. I started and finished it in about 12 hours (and 7 of those hours were spent sleeping). I started it late one night before bed and read until I fell asleep. Then I grabbed it and finished it as soon as I woke up. OK, as soon as I woke up, fed and changed the baby, and found an activity to keep her occupied for the hour or so it took me to finish. Point is - block off some time because once this one gets started, you won't want to put it down.
I really liked and appreciated how smart this book was. I'm impressed by Kim Purcell's writing and I will definitely keep her on my list of authors to watch. I also think this one would make a great movie, so let's get on that Hollywood!
This Is Not A Love Letter will be available for purchase on January 30, 2018.
Sometimes it takes a week or two for publishers to get back to you with a yes or a no and then it can be another few months even before I download and read a given book. I try not to read them too far in advance of publication because most of the time, publishers want the review to go live at around the same time that the book becomes available.
All that is to say that by the time I finally got around to reading This Is Not A Love Letter, by Kim Purcell, I had totally and completely, 100% forgotten what the heck it was about. I went into the book blind and I'm actually really happy about that.
First, the required stuff: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Ok, now that that's over with. I loved this book! It was so riveting. If I'm being totally honest, I wasn't expecting much - I've been off YA for a while now and so by the time I needed to start reading it, I was not really looking forward to it at all, thinking it was going to be your average girl/boy YA love drama. I was so, so wrong.
This Is Not A Love Letter is a cross between The Girl on the Train and Me Before You. For real. It's all about these two teenagers - Jesse and Chris. Jesse is basically poor white trash with a hoarder mother and Chris is the local star baseball player with a bright future and unlimited potential. They live in a small, very white, economically depressed paper mill town in the Pacific Northwest. And Chris is black.
Chris and Jesse are in love but Jesse is worried she's going to hold Chris back so she tells him she wants a one week break. She wants for them to both gain some perspective and figure out what they'll do next year when Chris goes off to college and she stays behind to work for a year. Chris takes it badly and then disappears. Jesse is convinced he's been jumped or worse but can't seem to rally support at first. Most people want to believe he's just run off for a few days.
It's hard to describe much of this book without giving a lot away. Just know that it's super fast-paced and that I could not put it down. I started and finished it in about 12 hours (and 7 of those hours were spent sleeping). I started it late one night before bed and read until I fell asleep. Then I grabbed it and finished it as soon as I woke up. OK, as soon as I woke up, fed and changed the baby, and found an activity to keep her occupied for the hour or so it took me to finish. Point is - block off some time because once this one gets started, you won't want to put it down.
I really liked and appreciated how smart this book was. I'm impressed by Kim Purcell's writing and I will definitely keep her on my list of authors to watch. I also think this one would make a great movie, so let's get on that Hollywood!
This Is Not A Love Letter will be available for purchase on January 30, 2018.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Two Nights
When I first heard that Kathy Reichs had written a non-Temperance Brennan book I was really excited to check it out. Don't get me wrong, I love the Bones series and I hope it's not over, but I'm always stoked when an author I like a lot branches out. (I'd love love love to see Lee Child write a non-Jack Reacher book, for example)
Two Nights did not disappoint. Reichs introduces another badass heroine in this book that I am hoping as hard as I can will be the first in a new series. Sunday Night is an ex-military, ex-cop introvert who has retreated from the world to a sparsely populated island off the coast of South Carolina. She gets pulled into a missing person case as a PI and winds up in the middle of a terrorist plot to blow up.... well, I don't want to give anything away so I'll stop there.
Seriously, check this book out. It's so good. I could barely put it down. Reichs is an underrated writer who consistently delivers solid characters, plots and drama. I recommend this, and all of her other books for grown-ups (I haven't checked out her YA series yet) to all crime/thriller fans.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
2017 Wrap-Up and Looking Forward
2017 has been kind of a bust for me, in terms of reading. I've been so busy that I didn't quite even make my modest (for me) goal of 50 books read for the year! I know resolutions are kind of out of style, but I think I'm going to make one for 2018 anyway - stop overextending myself.
In 2017 attempted to do a lot of things - be a mother to my newborn baby girl and teenaged son, read at least 50 books and review them all on this blog, dye yarn and grow my Etsy shop, and just generally keep my house and family running along smoothly. I think I succeeded at the parenting and household stuff, but if I'm being totally honest, I kind of half-assed everything else. I didn't even manage to succeed in my goal of knitting a pair of socks every month of the year.
In 2018 I resolve to be more present and stop trying to be a superwoman. I resolve to let myself have downtime without feeling guilt over what I could be doing instead and I resolve to stop biting off so much more than I can chew.
So. Goals for my Etsy shop - stock at least once per month, not once per week. If I can handle more, great. If not... that's ok, too. My goal for now is to just maintain my current market presence.
Goals for this blog - a minimum of one review per month. Again, if I can handle more, awesome. If not, oh well. Note to readers: you may notice some changes in my writing style over the next few months. I'm trying to let myself ignore conventional wisdom about book reviews and adopt a more natural, conversational tone. Old habits die hard though - I'm more trained as a technical writer than an interesting one, so bear with me.
Goals for reading - a book a week. Yeah, that's more than I did in 2017, but dammit - keeping my mind engaged needs to remain a priority.
Goals for parenting - keep being available and present for my kids. Keep helping them develop into confident, self-sufficient human beings with empathy and consideration for others. And get my teenager to do his own damned laundry.
Goals for the house - keep it clean enough on a daily basis that I don't turn into a stress monster when someone is going to visit. Accept that dust bunnies exist and that they don't mean I'm a bad person. And maybe get the family room painted.
Goal for myself - go back to school and finally start finishing that bachelor's degree I started working towards in 1999. I wanted to have my degree by the time I turned 30 and spent that birthday mourning that goal. The new goal is to have that degree the year I turn 40. I resolve to stay determined to meet it.
Finally, this is supposed to be a blog about books, so I'm going to close this out by telling you that I started reading Kathy Reichs' newest book, Two Nights, last night and it's AWESOME. Seriously. I like the Temperence Brennan books, but this one is so much better (at least, the first part is - it could still go south). I hope Reichs hasn't given up on the Bones series, but I also really like this new character she's got going on - Sunny Night. The story is good, the writing is above average for Reichs and I'm having a hard time putting the book down to get anything else done. Definitely check this one out if you are a crime/suspense/thriller fan!
In 2017 attempted to do a lot of things - be a mother to my newborn baby girl and teenaged son, read at least 50 books and review them all on this blog, dye yarn and grow my Etsy shop, and just generally keep my house and family running along smoothly. I think I succeeded at the parenting and household stuff, but if I'm being totally honest, I kind of half-assed everything else. I didn't even manage to succeed in my goal of knitting a pair of socks every month of the year.
In 2018 I resolve to be more present and stop trying to be a superwoman. I resolve to let myself have downtime without feeling guilt over what I could be doing instead and I resolve to stop biting off so much more than I can chew.
So. Goals for my Etsy shop - stock at least once per month, not once per week. If I can handle more, great. If not... that's ok, too. My goal for now is to just maintain my current market presence.
Goals for this blog - a minimum of one review per month. Again, if I can handle more, awesome. If not, oh well. Note to readers: you may notice some changes in my writing style over the next few months. I'm trying to let myself ignore conventional wisdom about book reviews and adopt a more natural, conversational tone. Old habits die hard though - I'm more trained as a technical writer than an interesting one, so bear with me.
Goals for reading - a book a week. Yeah, that's more than I did in 2017, but dammit - keeping my mind engaged needs to remain a priority.
Goals for parenting - keep being available and present for my kids. Keep helping them develop into confident, self-sufficient human beings with empathy and consideration for others. And get my teenager to do his own damned laundry.
Goals for the house - keep it clean enough on a daily basis that I don't turn into a stress monster when someone is going to visit. Accept that dust bunnies exist and that they don't mean I'm a bad person. And maybe get the family room painted.
Goal for myself - go back to school and finally start finishing that bachelor's degree I started working towards in 1999. I wanted to have my degree by the time I turned 30 and spent that birthday mourning that goal. The new goal is to have that degree the year I turn 40. I resolve to stay determined to meet it.
Finally, this is supposed to be a blog about books, so I'm going to close this out by telling you that I started reading Kathy Reichs' newest book, Two Nights, last night and it's AWESOME. Seriously. I like the Temperence Brennan books, but this one is so much better (at least, the first part is - it could still go south). I hope Reichs hasn't given up on the Bones series, but I also really like this new character she's got going on - Sunny Night. The story is good, the writing is above average for Reichs and I'm having a hard time putting the book down to get anything else done. Definitely check this one out if you are a crime/suspense/thriller fan!
Friday, December 15, 2017
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?
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?
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