#24 - One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Group Viking and Jojo Moyes for allowing me an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, this was more of a 3.5.  I loved the characters in the book and how the events were put in motion throughout the novel.  As is the case with most of Moyes writing, everyone has a distinct personality and voice and I LOVE how every chapter is told by a different perspective but is still told in the third person.  So many writers these days try to take on too much when bouncing between characters but this one was done beautifully.  There were definitely parts in this book that the single momma/momma bear side of me started raging! Moyes treatment of the situation with the ex was perfectly executed.

So where did the 1.5 stars disappear for me? Predictability.  In the first few chapters you can smell the set up: Poor downtrodden girl cleans the house of a Rich dude.  A sudden need for a huge sum and a need for a road trip arises...wonder who is going to help her sort it out?  Genius little girl needs to take a big exam to win lots of money...well that one had a little turn in it but I could sniff out the twist in that one too.  That in by no means took away from my enjoyment of the book itself it just shaved off enough to keep this from being one of the truly great ones of my reading year.

Totally pick it up and go to the pool, the beach, read it in the bleachers between the interminable summer ball games and enjoy! It's definitely more than your typical chick-lit but if you are a Moyes fan, don't expect "The Girl You Left Behind" from this one.

#22 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

It's hard to even know where to begin with this book, it is so dense with imagery, metaphor, symbolism, tragedy and convergence that it makes it hard to critique.

Donna Tartt is a gifted author that has a way with making each of her settings throughout the book distinct and set apart from all of the other sections.  So distinct, in fact, that at times I forgot that I was still reading the same book. I was looking back through my notes thinking "Oh yeah that happened in this book too didn't it? Wow"

The first section with Theo's mother was so lovely that it was jarring to see that vignette get destroyed.  The section with the Barbours and Hobie gave a sense that things could still turn out alright and, though the light had changed, there was still light to be seen.  Then Vegas happened and we all took a very different ride. The contrast of the bright, glaring, shiny veneer of the setting against the dusty, nostalgic  but warm and inclusive scenes in New York was another jolt to the readers system. And then Amsterdam was a cluster of unbelievable proportions that seemed disjointed from everything else, yet somehow still inevitable given the path that Boris and Theo journeyed down.

I admit to page skimming a bit through some of the long tangents of art history, furniture making, sailing, and the multiple tangents about the beauty of the painting etc. The novel could have easily been trimmed by 100 or more pages by taking out some of those side cars but yet, it also showed the disjointed, stream of conscious mind of a boy that lost so much, so soon and so consistently throughout his life.

I was able to predict what Boris did by how he reacted when Theo left so I wasn't surprised about the fate of the painting.  That plot line tied up a little bit too neatly considering what happened in trying to retrieve it but I did appreciate that there was gain to be had.  It felt like maybe the provenance came from Theo's mother, connecting the circle back.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

Read date: May 12, 2014

#21 - The Here and Now by Ann Breshares

Many thanks go out to Netgalley, Random House Children's and Ann Brashares for the advanced reader copy of "The Here and Now"

First and foremost, if you are planning to pick up this novel purely because you are in love with the Travelling Pants, stop and evaluate.  This is not the Travelling Pants series.  That analogy is like telling you to pick up Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" because you are a fan of "Twilight".  Trust me kids, this is apples and oranges.

Second, please read this book with the audience in mind.  The publisher is Random House Children's and it is definitely framed in a YA mindset.  Unlike some of the other successful crossovers in the Dystopian YA genre like Divergent or Hunger Games, this one is geared more toward the 11-14 year old range.

All that being said, the book itself would be a favorite read of mine when I was 11.  I would have loved the characters and the story behind Prenna's journey and what she was fighting for and against.  The thinness of the plot which is obvious to me now, wouldn't have mattered.  I would have had real emotions in the ending and really felt for the characters.

Reading it with a discerning eye, it's less than stellar, but for the target age and genre range, I felt it was a solid little book.

Goodreads rating: 3 stars

In Progress: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

#20 - Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Group Plume and Rainbow Rowell for allowing me the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I know that this is not the most sophisticated novel that you will read this year but "Attachments" by Rainbow Rowell is one of those stories that makes your heart a little bit lighter at the end, its romance without the sap, it characters with a good heart and real personalities and flaws and proof that storytelling can happen through email chains and abstract ways.

I adored the characters in this novel, Jennifer and Beth could have been me and any number of friends abusing the intraoffice email system to gossip about our own lives.  Lincoln was just a sweet guy with good intentions that believes in love.  Put all together its the kind of love story that all other love stories should look like.  Even just writing this review, 10 days after I read it, is making me smile just a little bit thinking back on it.

Goodreads rating: 5 stars  (not for great literature but for a much needed good feeling)

Read date April 19, 2014

#19 - Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

After last year's reading of "We Need To Talk About Kevin" I was instantly intrigued by the new novel "Big Brother" by Lionel Shriver.  For the most part it did not disappoint however it was a whole lot different than Kevin in some key ways.

First of all I got a huge nerd buzz by reading about a book set in Iowa of all places.  When I was reading, I assumed that Shriver grew up in Iowa, the little touches like the DeVries bakery (I went to summer camp with someone by that name), picking Edison up at the Cedar Rapids airport (I have flown out of that place), and the dutch touches all around the fictional town of New Holland felt like someone who knew Iowa intimately.

The main theme of the book is extremes and the destruction they can inflict on a family.  I was right there along with Pandora during the entire journey.  The theory that "it's easier to be perfect than to be occasionally bad" rang in my mind. I am one of those people for whom it is easier to live on 4 packets of ready mix shakes than to diet and have cheat days.  The scene with Fletcher in the diner when Pandora has obviously lost way too much weight was frighteningly honest and I think more people should be called out on their extreme swings.

And then the last chapter happened.  I know I complain about endings a lot - but seriously - come on - I felt cheap and dirty and used after the last chapter.  I won't give it away because I want you to enjoy every morsel of goodness that happens in the first 300 pages of this novel, please read it, its worth it. Just know its coming.  I'd love to hear what you think of it if you pick it up yourself.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars (solely based on the ending)

Date read: April 18, 2014

#18 - Sycamore Row by John Grisham

Sycamore Row was my office book club pick for the month of April.  I had heard that this was a follow up novel to "A Time to Kill" which featured some of my favorite characters of the John Grisham set of novels so I was cautiously optimistic starting this book.

I'm glad I was cautious.  This is by no means a "sequel" to the first book but it is a continuation of the characters.  Grisham does a good job of making everything fit since the end of the "A Time to Kill" (i.e. living in a rental house since theirs burned, etc). This story, however is completely different than the compelling story of the Carl Lee Haley case.

While I enjoyed it on the whole, when it boils down to it, this is 466 pages of trying to make a will case seem really action packed and interesting. In the end, it didn't quite work for me.  Without giving away any important plot points, the motivation of the main character's actions in creating his hand written will really didn't ring true to me.  I would have much rather happened that there was a twist in the end that would have tied things up better.  Either Simeon or Lettie should have been involved with the plot more closely in my not so humble opinion.  But I'm not a bestselling author so take that for what its worth ;)

Goodreads rating: 3 stars

Date read: April 9, 2014

#17 - Runaway Saint by Lisa Samson

I'd like to thank Lisa Samson, Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for the advanced reader copy of Runaway Saint in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the description of this book when I browsed it on Netgalley but, unfortunately it turned out to just not be my kind of book.  I found that I didn't connect with the characters in the story and found it hard to connect all of the different internal struggles to a central plot point and I wasn't blown away by the big reveal of what happened to Bel to make her run away - as much build up to the unsealing of her tight lips as there was in the first half, I found that it fell flat for me after that.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this, it just wasn't a genre or story that captured my attention or made me feel the way it was supposed to make me feel.

Goodreads rating: 2 stars (if you enjoy the Christian Fiction genre, you will appreciate this book)

#16 - Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I was so happy when the audio copy of "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed became available on my library's Overdrive system.  This book kept me company during the start of my 1/2 marathon training and really helped keep me motivated to take just one more step in a "If Cheryl can do this practically barefoot, I can do one more mile" kind of way.

There were parts of this story where the mommy part of my brain took over and wanted to scream at her to just STOP YOU IDIOT!  I know that, personally, I would have thrown in the towel after a lot of those adverse conditions occurred.  But at the same time, this sounded a lot like something I would have gotten myself into when I was younger.  Convincing myself that I needed to do some big giant thing and then not preparing myself adequately for the undertaking at all.

I kind of hated some of the parts in the same way that I hated some parts of "Eat Pray Love".  But on the whole I enjoyed Cheryl's journey and rejoiced at the end when she reached her final destination no matter what the circumstances.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

Date read: March 26, 2014

#15 - Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I was so scared to pick up this book.  I loved the first two novels in the series Divergent and Insurgent but I had heard some really really conflicting reviews about the final installment from readers whose opinions I very much respect. On top of that, I got spoiled to the major plot twist that happens in this book so I was incredibly trepidatious when I started this one up.

The result: I didn't hate it but there are things that irked me. I'm a science geek so I kinda dug on the genetic experimentation aspect of the book, its not the turn that I expected any of this to take when Insurgent ended but I wasn't upset about it either.

What got under my skin though, was the way the story-telling flipped back and forth between Tris and Four.  Even though I know why it had to be done this way, I didn't feel like either one of them had a strong enough voice to make either of them distinct. I was constantly flipping back to the beginning of each chapter to see who was actually speaking to make everything to make sense.

I wish this was a better ending (and I definitely wish I hadn't spent half of the book waiting for what I knew was going to happen) but I didn't hate it either.

Goodreads rating: 3 stars

Read date March 22, 2014

#14 - Travelling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker

This was a fun find from browsing the Overdrive audio book library and found good feedback on Goodreads that intrigued me.  The final result: this is quirk done right.  This is one of those books that I would classify as a "writers novel", it gets to the heart of what goes on inside the head of the author and runs as a stream of consciousness through his character, Paul Chowder.

Whereas other reviewers I have seen found his forays about the bassoon and music distracting, I found the musical references fitting and somehow appropriate to the feelings that the narrator was going through.

Listening to this book as opposed to reading it was like having a friend in my car telling me stories about his day.  Paul Chowder's voice was like that of one of my friends from high school or college in is eccentricity and made the whole book very enjoyable.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

Read date: March 17, 2014

#13 - Memoirs of an Invisible Friend by Matthew Dicks

Many thanks to my posse girl Mandi for sharing this sweet book with me.  I remember the two of us wandering the aisles of Target on my birthday last year when she picked it up.  I'm so glad that she did!

This is a novel that really captured the voice, imagination and innocence of a child.  Max is a young boy with autism and the internal dialogue that is used very closely echoes the behaviors and challenges that my friends who are raising children with autism relay back to me. Budo is the imaginary friend and the author builds an entire alternate world in which imaginary friends can talk to other imaginary friends.  Some of the things that Dicks says about the friends are so interesting - how most don't have eyebrows because kids never think about eyebrows when creating an imaginary friends, some only have heads, or distortions because they are at the will of this child who needs them - until they don't.

Although sweetly written I had a massive challenge with the fact that Budo has the ability to leave his child. I could suspend reality up until the point where, in the moment that Max needs him most, Budo is off wandering somewhere else. That sort of defeats the purpose of an imaginary friend in my opinion so it knocked a star off of my rating.

Goodreads rating 4 stars

Read date: March 7, 2014

#12 - Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

I was just transported back to my college years when we all fell to the bible of dating neuroticism that was Bridget Jones Diary.  It was a complete jolt to reality that Bridget is now 50 (!?!?) and it took me some time to adjust to the fact that nearly 20 years have passed since we first met our hapless heroine stumbling through her 30's.  Damned if it doesn't make me feel older than I need to though.

Helen Fielding is a very brave soul with the direction that she took with this installment of Bridget Jones <sidenote: this is going to be hard to write without being spoilerific> but I understand why she did - that decision kept this book with the same feeling and rhythm as the first two but its just not what I wanted for this character with whom I once so closely related.

Regardless, this is a must read for any of us single chicks who entered the world of chick lit while it was still new and exciting.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars rounded up for nostalgia's sake...

Read date: March 4, 2014

#11 - Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne

A big thank you to John Boyne, Macmillan Publishing, and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of "Stay Where You Are and Then Leave" by John Boyne.

Even though this book is listed as Children's/YA, after my experiences with "The Boy In the Striped Pajamas" I knew that this would not be your typical kids book.  Set in World War I London, its the story of how a nine year old boy's life gets turned upside down when his father enlists for wartime service.

It's always an interesting perspective to see things like war through the lens of a child.  It's easy to forget how the people on the homefront are affected when the father figure and breadwinner is taken off for military service.  Boys have to grow up before their time, mothers who once were able to focus on child rearing and home making are thrust into the workforce against their  will to keep the household running and then, when it is over, many times the men do not come back the same.

One of the themes that Boyne does a lovely job of capturing is the mental illness that afflicts many of the soldiers that return home from battle.  Even today the care for these men is feeble at best.

My big complaint is the ending - there seems to be a little red bow that ties up all of the ends and its not necessarily in a believable way, but I will chalk that up to the genre rather than a flaw of the book itself.  I will be interested to see what my 13 year old stepson thinks when I have him read it as well.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars.

#10 - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Yup - I picked up this book because I wanted to watch the Netflix series and can't do it until I read the book.  Overdrive audio had the files and it seemed like the perfect way to accomplish that goal. (sidenote: I have since watched the series and, trust me, there are serious and marked differences between the two)

I found most of this book really intriguing. I can't imagine having a past that I put behind me creep up out of nowhere and land me in prison for 15 months of my life.  And now that I've read this account I'm tragically afraid that it could happen to me.  Piper's account of her time in women's prison was at times funny and heartwarming.  It provided rare insight into what it is actually like for inmates in a minimum security prison, both the good and the bad.  It's amazing to peek inside the encapsulated societies that exist within the walls of the prison. I enjoyed the portrayal of the different inmates that befriended her along her journey and could only imagine how jarring it must have been to have given up her metropolitan life to be put in a completely foreign situation with people who could not be considered peers by any stretch of the imagination.

Goodreads rating: 4 stars

In progress: (nook) Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
(audio): Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

#9 - The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Where to even start with a book like this? There are so many layers to unpeel that it seems trite to try to encapsulate them in one small review.  This was a book club pick for my work group but it was also one that had been on the top of my list since the 2013 top reads lists came out from my friends and Goodreads and it appeared on many of them.  So I took the perfect excuse to read it and ran with it.

This novel is full of "what would you do".  The setting is on an isolated island containing only a light house and a home where the main characters live.  It's hard to imagine what that kind of isolation can do to a person.  The location, Janus Rock, a nod to the Roman God of cross roads provides a tragic setting for what follows and the lighthouse becomes a character all its own and a metaphor for the little girl around which the story revolves.  

Heart breaking are the decisions that were made both at the beginning and the end and I found myself simultaneously mad at and sad for every single character in the book because the situation was impossible and handled poorly start to finish by everyone involved (including the little girl). How far would you go to provide healing for the person that you love the most? How far would you let your guilty conscience take you in the other direction? What is the real definition of family?

Again - didn't love the ending and thought it should have ended before the flash forward - but I am hard on the endings of books that I love reading maybe just because I don't want them to end.

Goodreads rating: 5 stars

#8 - Heft by Liz Moore

I loved this book.  Like, seriously, loved this book.  Except for one major nagging thing.  The ending.

Heft follows the story of three unlikely people to be linked in any way - Arthur Opp, a 550 pound shut in - Kel Keller, a high school kid who loves baseball - and Yolanda, a pregnant, hispanic cleaning lady.  How do these three fit together? In a sometimes funny often heart breaking turn of events.  I listened to this in audiobook format and just couldn't turn it off even at work.  The voice of Arthur came through just like a trusted friend telling a story.

Here's the rub.  **minor spoiler alert** The build up of these three storylines should have been a grand meeting where all of the forces collide and there is a moment.  I was waiting for that moment to arrive, however fleeting, like the 10 pages in "All The Light We Cannot See" where it comes together and then parts just as effortlessly.  In Heft, however, the book quits right before the blessing.  Now sometimes I can forgive an author for leaving me hanging but I was totally hooked and at the moment of literary climax only to be left at the edge. (feel free to insert sexual metaphor here).  **sigh**

Please read this (or check it out from Overdrive audio) regardless.  It's a lovely story and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Goodreads rating: 4.5 stars (damn you ending)

#7 - Byron Easy by Jude Cook

Many thanks to Netgalley, Jude Cook, and Pegasus Publishing for allowing me an advanced reader copy of Byron Easy.

This book is a marathon - not a sprint. The writing is brilliant and full and extremely dense and the main character has a completely phrenetic yet intriguingly beautiful way of looking at the world.  As you can probably tell from the jacket, this is not a feel good kind of book.  It's the story of a drunk, broke, depressed, wanna be author told in a combination of flashback and present tense that somehow works together to create the story.

Not everyone is going to love this and I can't say that I really loved it in the way I wanted to but there were moments of true brilliance hidden in these pages as well as madness and extreme self indulgence.

Fans of Kerouac and Vonnegut will be incredibly comfortable between the covers of this story.

Goodreads rating: right between 3 and 4 stars but the fact that this book took me a full month to slog through had me round it down.

#6 - The Gods Of Guilt by Michael Connelly

This is not my favorite of the Harry Bosch/Mickey Haller series but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.  Connelly has long been one of my guilty pleasures but I felt like there was very little in the way of the character development that I have come to love about these intertwined stories.

All in all it was a great way to pass the time as I was driving down and back from Kansas City for a fun weekend and a decent offering from a tried and true entertainer.  I especially liked the way he wove the real life movie of "The Lincoln Lawyer" into the fictional story of "The Gods of Guilt".

Goodreads rating: 3 stars

In Progress:
Kindle: Byron Easy by Jude Cook
Audio: Orange is the New Black by Piper Kermin

#5 - All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A million thank you's go out to Scribner Publishing, Netgalley and Anthoney Dorr for allowing me the privilege of an advanced Reader copy of All The Light We Cannot See.

Gasp. I absolutely adored this novel.  Trying to describe this book would be woefully inadequate.  It is gorgeously written, each character fully explored, the back and forth in time of the story sequence is seamless and lovely.  The convergence of the storylines is exquisite, realistic, fleeting and lasting.  The whole experience of reading this book could be summed up in my new favorite phrase, gleaned from its pages.  Belle Laide.  Beautiful Ugly. Please read this book and support this brilliant author as soon as it becomes available on May 6, 2014.

Goodreads rating: 5 glittering, shimmering stars!

#4 I Know Who You Are and I Know What You Did by Lori Andrews

Is there such a thing as too much information? Yup - its a scary world out there.  We have more transparency in our personal lives than ever before.  People know more about us and so - unfortunately - do corporations.  And without context of information, incorrect assumptions are made about us by people we don't even know.  I try to explain this to my kids that employers and schools are going to look at their social media presences someday and think they know you but all they know is what you put out there.

That being said, this book was 250 pages of scaring the crap out of you and creating this "social network constitution" without advancing any ideas or strategies about how to protect yourself and what to do about these gross invasions of privacies that are happening daily.

While I do see the value in letting the public know what is going on, there is little value in that without a game plan on how to protect yourself.

Goodreads rating: 2 stars

In Progress: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (nook)
The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly (audio)

#3 - If You Ask Me by Betty White

How can you possibly say anything bad about Betty White? I can only hope that I am as spry and active and downright adventurous as she is when I am in my late years.

"If You Ask Me" offered some fun insights into the back stage presence of this sweet lady with an amazing sense of comedic timing and a proven history in her long career.  She is an absolute doll and you can feel her heart for people and animals and her coworkers as you work your way through this book.

Thanks for giving us a glimpse inside your world Ms White.

#2 - The Shepherd, the Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog buy Dave Barry

I really wanted to read this before Christmas - but it didn't become available on my library's audio system before the first of the year so I made due.

Yes, this is a pretty pat "Christmas Story-esque" story about a kid at Christmas, and his church Christmas pageant etc. but what can I say, I love the voices Dave Barry writes on his characters and, after my husband's recent run in with a bat in our attic, the sub story of the bats in the bell tower made me giggle a little bit extra.

It's a short little piece of Christmas cheer and I definitely recommend it for your next holiday season - available on Overdrive Media Audio book.

Goodreads rating: 3 stars

#1 - What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin

Starting off my year with a big thank you to NetGalley, Linda Yellin and Gallery books for the advanced reader copy of "What Nora Knew"  This book will be available for purchase on January 21, 2014.

This story was based on the movies and writing style of Nora Ephron of "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail" fame.  When I picked up the book I was looking for a journey of discovery into what it was that made her stories so compelling, what I got, was Chick Lit 101.  There is a compelling quote that keeps popping up. "In Sleepless in Seattle, we know Meg's going to end up with Tom Hanks.  She'll end up with Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally. But we still keep watching. We're still mesmerized by the journey."  I kept that concept in my mind as I read.  The knowledge that she was going to make the "Meg Ryan" choice all along was comforting and didn't add any unecessary build up into which guy she was going to choose, the safe stable one or the annoying bad boy.  I just...didn't get mesmerized by the journey the way I wanted to.

Fans of books like Emily Giffin, Sophie Kinsella, and Candace Bushnell will probably really love this book.  It has all of the ingredients for chicklit.  A job in publishing, the unlikely romances, the love interests, the spunky girlfriends and improbable situations that once appealed to me.  Unfortunately, this reader doesn't fall into that genre anymore so while it was a light and fairly quick read, I wasn't blown away.

Goodreads rating: 2.5 neutral stars

On Deck: Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

2013 Year in Review

2013 was a GREAT year for reading!  With the help of my posse I made a goal of reading 100 books!!! (sorry if you get sick of hearing about it but I'm still geeked out.)

The challenge then becomes - the recap.

First of all the stats:
Books: 100
Pages: 32,259
5 Stars: 22
Fiction: 73
Non Fiction: 27
NetGalley/Advanced Reader Copies: 12
Audiobooks: 42

Throughout the year I have picked my top two of the month every month - in lieu of a top 10 here are my favorites as I read them! Some are 5 stars and some are 4 stars but feel free to use the cloud in the sidebar to link in to the star ratings or visit my Goodreads page!

January:
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe,
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

February:
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Cleaning House by Kay Wyma

March:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler

April:
Drift by Rachel Maddow
I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

May:
Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

June:
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

July:
Honeymoon in Paris by Jojo Moyes
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

August:
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
Dan Gets a Minivan by Dan Zevin

September
Golden Boy by Abigail Tartellin
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

October
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

November
We Live in Water by Jess Walter
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

December
Perfect by Rachel Joyce
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein