Dad is Fat.

GoodReads Synopsis: In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers’ communication skills (“they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news”), to the eating habits of four year olds (“there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor”). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood,Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

My Thoughts: This book was a hilarious peek into parenthood.  Jim Gaffigan is, of course, one of the funniest comics around, and his book was no different.  I definitely recommend it for anyone contemplating parenthood or in the midst of parenthood.  A laugh out loud read.  Five stars.

Gilead.

GoodReads Synopsis: In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.

This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.

My Thoughts:  This is my second Pulitzer Prize winning book in the last two years, and each of them have left me wondering who in the world gives out this award.  It only took me 150 pages into this 247 page book to find a plot.  I know it was supposed to be a journal from a dying father to his son, so it was going to ramble and not follow a typical storyline.  However, it was incredibly non-linear at many times jumping from scene to scene, character to character then back again that frustrated me immensely.  What saved this book from one star was a lot of the wisdom that was present in Reverend Ames's musings and the story with John Ames Boughton that finally went somewhere in the last twenty pages.  Two stars.

Vaclav and Lena.

GoodReads Synopsis: Vaclav and Lena, both the children of Russian émigrés, are at the same time from radically different worlds. While Vaclav's burgeoning love of performing magic is indulged by hard-working parents pursuing the American dream, troubled orphan Lena is caught in a domestic situation no child should suffer through. Taken in as one of her own by Vaclav's big-hearted mother, Lena might finally be able to blossom; in the naive young magician's eyes, she is destined to be his "faithful assistant"...but after a horrific discovery, the two are ripped apart without even a goodbye. Years later, they meet again. But will their past once more conspire to keep them apart? 

My Thoughts: I listened to most of this on audiobook, and I think the author was helped greatly by the narrator.  I loved the first half of this book when the kids are young-- it was very sweet, and I could easily picture their situations.  After the time jump, however, things went downhill even though I really wanted to love the rest of it.  I enjoyed Vaclav's separate story, but Lena's was nothing more than a rambling introspection that occasionally came back around to a plot.  Then when they were finally back together again, everything seemed rushed and outlandish.  I get that Lena was a messed up girl, but she (perhaps unintentionally) manipulated him from beginning to end.  And the final scene was just ridiculous.  This book was less than 300 pages.  Even only 50 more pages would have fleshed out the characters and plot enough to make it worth reading.  Alas...  Three stars (the first half gets four, and the second half gets 1, so I split the middle and rounded up).

The Invention of Wings.

GoodReads Synopsis: Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

My Thoughts:  This is my second book in the last month that is a fictionalized account of a real person.  I started this book for two reasons: 1) I needed an Oprah's Book Club book for my 2015 book challenge, and 2) it was the same audio narrator as in Z, whom I adored.  Once again, Jenna Lamia was a fantastic narrator as Sarah Grimke.  In this audiobook, she was paired with the wondeful Adepero Oduye, who read the voice of Handful.  The two of them together made this audiobook come alive.  

The story itself was amazing.  It had characters that immediately made me feel invested into their lives, an unusual ability to make me love characters that weren't always very sympathetic, and a saga-esque story that carried on for decades (yet masterfully fit within the confines of a 350 page book).  It's impossible to recount all the feelings that coursed through me as I listened to and read this story.  Read it, and you'll find out for yourself.  Five stars.

Eve's Daughters.

GoodReads Synopsis: Yearning for love and dignity, four generations of women must come to grips with the choices they've made--and those their mothers made before them. But breaking the cycle that has ensnared them over the decades will prove more difficult than they had ever imagined... Eighty-year-old Emma Bauer has carefully guarded a dark secret for more than fifty years. But when she sees her granddaughter's marriage beginning to unravel, Emma realizes that her lies about her own marriage have poisoned those she loves most. Can she help her granddaughter break free of a legacy of wrong choices? Or will she take her secret--and her broken heart--to the grave?

With honesty and compassion, author Lynn Austin weaves a compelling story of four unforgettable women--their struggles, their crises of faith, their triumphs.

My Thoughts: I first read this book in the ninth grade and loved it.  I read it again a few years later and again loved it.  So when I started my 2015 book challenge, I knew this would be the one for "A book from my childhood."  Lynn Austin is a wonderful storyteller, and this book did not disappoint me after all these years.  Eve's Daughters is a beautiful story of four generations of women and how we are shaped by the lives of those that come before us.  Five stars.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.

GoodReads Synopsis:  When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.

My Thoughts:  Despite already knowing about Zelda and Scott's life, I was absolutely riveted to this story.  I listened to this on audiobook, and it was one of the absolute best I've ever listened to.  The story was beautifully written by Therese Fowler and and magnificently read by Jenna Lamia.  Z is definitely a novel, but yet also very well researched and based on actual events.  I absolutely fell in love with the Zelda that Fowler and Lamia created and felt immense sadness for her as she struggled through adulthood.  Five stars! 

Columbine.

GoodReads Synopsis: On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine."

Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris, and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal. 

The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who came to stockpile a basement cache of weapons, to record their raging hatred, and to manipulate every adult who got in their way. They left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boy's tapes and diaries, Cullen gives the first complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

In the tradition of Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, Columbine is destined to become a classic. A close-up portrait of hatred, a community rendered helpless, and the police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers--an unforgettable cautionary tale for our times.

My Thoughts:  Wow, this was a fascinating book.  It's incredibly well-researched and well-written.  I found myself in places wishing a bit that the author would stop bouncing back and forth between before and after the shooting.  But by the end of the book, it make complete sense how he peeled back the onion bit by bit instead of chronologically.  

I learned so much about the tragedy, mostly that everything I knew about it was untrue.  Columbine was quite damning to the media and its coverage of such tragic events, and how their poor coverage resulted in so much false belief even ten years later (when this book was published).  

If you're curious about Columbine, school shootings/terrorism, or the psychology of people who commit mass murder, then this would be a great read for you.  I read it in less than three days, despite the heaviness of the subject matter.  Incredibly fascinating and incredibly sad, all in the same book.

Rachel Knight Series.

Overview:  Rachel Knight is a Los Angeles County prosecutor in the Special Trials Unit.  As such, she prosecutes (and apparently investigates...) high-profile cases in LA.  Along with her BFFs LAPD Detective Bailey Keller and prosecutor Toni La Collier, Rachel navigates life, work, and romance as a highly visible local figure with her own childhood baggage and a love for vodka martinis, expensive LA restaurants, and sarcasm.  GoodReads synopses (slightly edited by me for length) for each book:

Guilt by Association:  When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel Knight is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family.  But she can't stop herself from digging deeper into Jake's death, a decision that exposes a world of power and violence and will have her risking her reputation--and her life--to find the truth.  

Guilt by Degrees:  Someone has been watching D.A. Rachel Knight--someone who's Rachel's equal in brains, but with more malicious intentions. It began when a near-impossible case fell into Rachel's lap, the suspect-less homicide of a homeless man. In the face of courthouse backbiting and a gauzy web of clues, Rachel is determined to deliver justice. She's got back-up: tough-as-nails Detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey stir things up, they're shocked to uncover a connection with the vicious murder of an LAPD cop a year earlier. Something tells Rachel someone knows the truth, someone who'd kill to keep it secret.

Killer Ambition:  When the daughter of a billionaire Hollywood director is found murdered after what appears to be a kidnapping gone wrong, Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller find themselves at the epicenter of a combustible and high-profile court case. Then a prime suspect is revealed to be one of Hollywood's most popular and powerful talent managers--and best friend to the victim's father. With the director vouching for the manager's innocence, the Hollywood media machine commences an all-out war designed to discredit both Rachel and her case.

The Competition: A Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley has left a community shaken to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide. In the aftermath of the shooting, Rachel Knight teams up with her best friend, detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey interview students at the high school, they realize that the facts don't add up. Could it be that the students suspected of being the shooters are actually victims? And if so, does that mean that the real killers are still on the loose?  

My Thoughts:  I absolutely love the character of Rachel Knight-- she's tough, sarcastic, quick-witted, and smart.  Plus, she hates mornings as much as I do.  These stories are all fantastic with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, but not so much to give you whiplash.  Marcia Clark definitely has a great storytelling talent, which has now served her well in two careers.  The Competition is my least favorite of the four.  It annoyed me slightly how a prosecutor was awfully involved in the investigation of a school shooting.  There were almost no courtroom scenes.  But it was otherwise a fascinating whodunnit thriller.  The first three were all five star books to me.  I gave the last one only three, which upon reconsideration might be a bit harsh.  Perhaps it's closer to a 4.  But definitely all are entertaining and worthy of reading!

The Nightingale.

GoodReads Synopsis:  In the quiet village of Carriveau, France, 1939, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another. 

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.

With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime. 

My Thoughts:  I don't know why, but I did not want to love this book.  Probably because there was so much hype about it that I wanted to buck the trend.  But alas, I could not.  It truly is a beautiful, inspiring, and devastating story.  Like most, I've read many, many novels set during World War II, some set in battle, and some on the home front.  It's almost impossible to write from a fresh perspective in such an oft-covered time period.  But Kristin Hannah has done so.  I loved the characters of Vianne and Isabelle.  They were beautifully deep and vibrant despite the author only having 438 pages to make us love two women.  And love them I did.  This book is definitely a roller coaster.  A slow build-up, some early bumps and turns, then hang on for a wild ride to the end.  Five stars.

Top Ten Tuesday-- Fall To-Read List.

Fall is an exciting for me and books. While I read the most during the summer, some of my favorite authors release new books in the fall!  Plus, I still have stacks of books from the library that I didn't get to during the summer to read in the next few months.  There are so many books I want to read before the year is over!  In no particular order, here are the top 10 books on my fall To-Be-Read list:

 

1. 8 Sandpiper Way by Debbie Macomber-- I am desperate to finish the Cedar Cove Series.  I've really slowed down reading these books because they've become a bit tedious with more and more additional characters.  But I've read seven of twelve, and darn it, I will finish them all!

2. The Competition by Marcia Clark-- I've read the first three Rachel Knight books this summer and LOVED them.  The only reason I haven't finished this one yet is because it's currently the last one.  So I'm holding off as long as I can, but it won't be long before I get back to it. 

3. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah-- The reviews surrounding this book have been phenomenal.  I'm very much looking forward to reading this one! 

4. The Crossing by Michael Connelly-- Hands down, my favorite fiction author, is Michael Connelly.  I anxiously await every fall when his new books are released, and I'm so excited for another Harry Bosch/ Mickey Haller crossover this November! 

5. Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham-- Another author whose books are always must-reads for me.  I can't wait to pick up this one in October. 

6. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo-- After finishing all of the Harry Bosch series last year, I needed another detective series to read.  And Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series has filled that spot wonderfully.  Since they are translated from Norwegian, sometimes the stories aren't the smoothest, but they are still fantastic.  The Redbreast is next up for me from the library.

7. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins--  I started to read this book a few months ago but wasn't very into it.  But I am determined to finish it this time once I get it from the library after waiting months in the 700+ person queue...

8. Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell-- I've never read a book by Candace Bushnell, so I'm not sure what prompted me to get this one from the library.  There are some very bad reviews about the end of this book, so I think it's mostly curiosity that makes me determined to pick this one up soon. 

9.  Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella-- Most YA books are not my cup of tea.  But I love Sophie Kinsella (outside of the Shopaholic books), so I'm hoping that this one will be as cute and fun as her adult stories. 

10.  Desiring God by John Piper-- This book has been on my to-read list for almost a year.  It stares at me from my bookshelf.  I will read it by the end of this year!

Down the Rabbit Hole.

GoodReads Synopsis:  A former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner describes how her years inside the Playboy Mansion went from a fairytale of A-list celebrity parties to an oppressive regime of strict rules, scheduled sex, and a total loss of identity, so much so that she even contemplated suicide.

My Thoughts:  Like many, I watched Girls Next Door with morbid fascination.  Life inside the Playboy Mansion seemed like life on another planet.  With that same curiosity, I was oddly excited to read Holly Madison's book.  She seemed like a genuinely nice person on the show, even if rather dim.  As you can imagine, Holly's tales of her time with Hugh Hefner are not rainbows and unicorns.  Rather, she describes a tyrannical and ruthless Hef with extreme rules and expectations and a gaggle of "girlfriends" who would do anything to climb their way to the top over the others.  I'm glad to read that Holly has seemed to find some normalcy for herself now and has gained some confidence.  The writing is as you would expect-- cliched and clearly biased in many places.  But it's a memoir of a former Playboy bunny.  You're not reading it for it's beautiful prose.  Three stars.

Stay Close.

GoodReads Synopsis:  Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at age forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Jack is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case—a local husband and father disappeared seventeen years ago, and Jack spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man’s family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them. Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn’t recede. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat.

My Thoughts: In the last two years, I've read every single one of Harlan Coben's books except one.  The was the next to last one I had to finish to finally catch up with his current publishing schedule.  He's easily one of my favorite writers.  But this was not my favorite of his books.  Perhaps it was because I've read so many recently that I was slightly burned out on them.  Or perhaps it genuinely was not as good as the others.  Who knows.  

It's a perfectly fine thriller, don't get me wrong.  The story was gripping, and there were plot twists that I did not anticipate.  But I guessed who the killer was early on and was proven right.  The journey to the end was entertaining and fun, just not up to Coben's usual standard.  Three stars.

(If you want to read some of his best work, go with Gone for Good, Tell No One, or the Myron Bolitar series.)

The Dress Shop of Dreams.

GoodReads Synopsis:  Since her parents’ mysterious deaths many years ago, scientist Cora Sparks has spent her days in the safety of her university lab or at her grandmother Etta’s dress shop. Tucked away on a winding Cambridge street, Etta’s charming tiny store appears quite ordinary to passersby, but the colorfully vibrant racks of beaded silks, delicate laces, and jewel-toned velvets hold bewitching secrets: With just a few stitches from Etta’s needle, these gorgeous gowns have the power to free a woman’s deepest desires.

Etta’s dearest wish is to work her magic on her granddaughter. Cora’s studious, unromantic eye has overlooked Walt, the shy bookseller who has been in love with her forever. Determined not to allow Cora to miss her chance at happiness, Etta sews a tiny stitch into Walt’s collar, hoping to give him the courage to confess his feelings to Cora. But magic spells—like true love—can go awry. After Walt is spurred into action, Etta realizes she’s set in motion a series of astonishing events that will transform Cora’s life in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

My Thoughts:  I desperately wanted to love this book.  After the beautiful works of Sarah Addison Allen, I sought out other "magical realism" books, and this was recommended by many.  Unfortunately, I found it greatly lacking.  

First the good-- the magic in this book is Etta's dress shop and her ability with her magic needle and thread to reveal to a person his/her deepest desire and give them the courage to pursue it.  I loved the discussion of her shop and how it changed for each customer, and then how it changed each customer.  Beautiful.  The relationship between Etta and Cora was also beautiful and touching.

But, the story relied heavily on my least favorite plot device ever-- a misunderstanding or lie that one character relies upon that changes their life (and therefore guides the story).  So, I spent almost all of the book incredibly frustrated and desperate for the truth to come out.

I also enjoyed the bit of mystery in the book, but it was clear early on who the bad guy was.  

Overall, it wasn't the worst book ever, but it didn't make me want to pick up another by this author.  Two stars.

The Longest Ride.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years old, in poor health and alone in the world, he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus beside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together – how they met, the precious paintings they collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their families. Ira knows that Ruth can’t possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories, reliving the sorrows and everyday joys that defined their marriage. 

A few miles away, at a local rodeo, a Wake Forest College senior’s life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break-up, Sophia Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke, who bears little resemblance to the privileged frat boys she has encountered at school. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes of survival and success, ruin and reward -- even life and death – loom large in everyday life. As she and Luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans -- a future that Luke has the power to rewrite . . . if the secret he’s keeping doesn't destroy it first.

Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common, and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys: beyond despair, beyond death, to the farthest reaches of the human heart. 

My Thoughts-- There was A LOT that I liked about this story.  First, that it took place in my hometown and at my law school alma mater!  Also, I thought the budding romance between Luke and Sophia was beautiful and genuine.  The life of love between Ira and Ruth was touching and inspiring.  Like many of his books, the author weaves parallel stories together in unexpected (and sometimes far-fetched) ways.  This one was one of the slightly more far-fetched and too-neatly-wrapped-up stories.  But the ending that had me rolling my eyes a bit did not diminish at all the beauty of the pages that came before it.

The Stranger.

GoodReads Synopsis-- The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world. Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream: a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life. Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne’s deception, and realizes that if he doesn’t make exactly the right moves, the conspiracy he’s stumbled into will not only ruin lives—it will end them.

My Thoughts-- I love Harlan Coben, but this book was rather disappointing.  Of course, it was suspenseful and intriguing and kept my attention for hours on end.  But there was just something thin about the story.  Or maybe it was too complex.  Or maybe my expectations were just too high for this one.  If you're looking for a great suspenseful thriller by HC, I'd recommend you read Gone for Good or Tell No One first to see how amazing Harlan Coben can be.

Anna and the French Kiss.

GoodReads Synopsis:  Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.  But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

My Thoughts:  There is no better YA author than Stephanie Perkins.  I find most YA books tedious and ridden with eye-roll worthy overdramatic teenage angst.  Not so with Ms. Perkins.  Of course there is teen drama, that's the whole point.  But her writing and characters are just so lovely.  It's a fluffy and romantic story with just the right amount of angst and problems that teenagers face.  And almost as much as a romance, it's a story of friendship.  A sweet book full of characters (and a city!!) that will draw you in.

Hide.

GoodReads Synopsis: It was a case that haunts Bobby Dodge to this day—the case that nearly killed him and changed his life forever. Now, in an underground chamber on the grounds of an abandoned Massachusetts mental hospital, the gruesome discovery of six mummified corpses resurrects his worst nightmare: the return of a killer he thought dead and buried. There’s no place to run...  Bobby’s only lead is wrapped around a dead woman’s neck. 

Annabelle Granger has been in hiding for as long as she can remember. Her childhood was a blur of new cities and assumed identities. But what—or who—her family was running from, she never knew. Now a body is unearthed from a grave, wearing a necklace bearing Annabelle’s name, and the danger is too close to escape. This time, she’s not going to run. You know he will find you... 

The new threat could be the dead psychopath’s copycat, his protégé—or something far more terrifying. Dodge knows the only way to find him is to solve the mystery of Annabelle Granger, and to do that he must team up with his former lover, partner, and friend D. D. Warren from the Boston P.D. But the trail leads back to a woman from Bobby’s past who may be every bit as dangerous as the new killer—a beautiful survivor-turned-avenger with an eerie link to Annabelle. From its tense opening pages to its shocking climax, Hide is a thriller that delves into our deepest, darkest fears. Where there is no one to trust. Where there is no place left to hide.

My Thoughts:  I have mixed feelings about this book.  The mystery around Annabelle Granger was fantastic, and her back story was incredibly interesting.  I only figured out who the bad guy was a bit before the protagonist, which is a sign of good mystery writing.  But I really don't connect at all with D.D. Warren or Bobby Dodge, and I'm not sure why.  Perhaps one day I'll pick up the next book in this series, but I'm not in a hurry to do so.

The Secret Life of Violet Grant.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite: break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and the hushed-over crime passionnel of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history.

Berlin, 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one reason: for all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany. The arrival of Dr. Grant’s magnetic former student at the beginning of Europe’s fateful summer interrupts this delicate détente. Lionel Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape her husband’s perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and Lionel’s shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own.

As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt’s past and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet’s story of determination and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad . . . and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious future––and the love––she wants most.

My Thoughts-- I love love loved Vivian Schuyler.  She was so cute and fun and feisty that I found myself rushing through the Violet story to get back to the Vivian story, even though Violet's was definitely more interesting.  Overall, it was a very well done story with two stories, fifty years apart, woven together seamlessly and beautifully.  I had no idea where Violet's story would end up, and it was a fantastic ending.  The only downfall was how the abuse of Dr. Grant made me cringe a few times.  Plus, the story lagged a little in the middle and lost me for a bit, so I gave it four stars instead of five.

We Were Liars.

GoodReads Synopsis: A beautiful and distinguished family.

A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

My Thoughts:  I read this book in an afternoon because I just HAD to know what happened.  This is your quintessential unreliable narrator, and we're taken on her journey of trying to remember why she can't remember anything for the last two years.  Yes, the writing is odd and took a bit to get into.  But once I just embraced it, it didn't bother me anymore.  This reminded me a lot of the movie Memento and The Sixth Sense in that once you know the truth revealed at the end, it changes the whole story you've just read or seen.  It's a wonderful storytelling technique, and Ms. Lockhart pulled it off phenomenally.

Attachments.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.  Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.  When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.  By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.  What would he say . . . ?

My Thoughts-- I'm not even sure how to review this book.  It was fine.  It was entertaining and funny and cute.  But also a little creepy that some guy is reading your emails and somehow falls in love with you?  A weird concept but done well enough to get three stars from me.  

Six Years.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd. But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for . . . but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for more than a decade, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out. As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart—and who lied to him—soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on carefully constructed fiction.

My Thoughts-- Another twisty/turn-y thriller from Harlan Coben.  I was glad to see him deviate from the unhappy suburbanite parent theme of some of his books preceding this one.  Six Years was a true mystery with the classic Harlan Coben wit I love.  Four stars.

The Typewriter Girl.

GoodReads Synopsis-- In Victorian London, there’s only so far an unmarried woman can go, and Betsey Dobson has relied on her wits and cunning to take herself as far as she can—to a position as a typewriter girl. But still, Betsey yearns for something more…so when she’s offered a position as the excursions manager at a seaside resort, she knows this is her chance for security, for independence, for an identity forged by her own work and not a man’s opinion. Underqualified for the job and on the wrong side of the aristocratic resort owner, Betsey struggles to prove herself and looks to the one person who can support her new venture: Mr. Jones, the ambitious Welshman building the resort’s pleasure fair. As she and Mr. Jones grow ever closer, Betsey begins to dream that she might finally have found her place in the world—but when her past returns to haunt her, she must fight for what she’s worked so hard… or risk losing everything.

My Thoughts--One of the most annoying books I've read in a long time. The main character was vulgar, frustrating, and not at all sympathetic.  The plot made little sense, and the writing was horrible.  Reader beware.

Pronto.

GoodReads Synopsis-- The feds want Miami bookmaker Harry Arno to squeal on his wiseguy boss. So they're putting word out on the street that Arno's skimming profits from "Jimmy Cap" Capotorto—which he is, but everybody does it. He was planning to retire to Italy someday anyway, so Harry figures now's a good time to get lost. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens knows Harry's tricky—the bookie ditched him once in an airport while in the marshal's custody—but not careful. So Raylan's determined to find the fugitive's Italian hideaway before a cold-blooded Sicilian "Zip" does and whacks Arno for fun. After all, it's a "pride thing"...and it might even put Raylan in good stead with Harry's sexy ex-stripper girlfriend Joyce.

My Thoughts-- My love for Justified and Raylan Givens led me to pick this up even though Raylan isn't the main character in this story.  I definitely saw some glimpses of the Raylan I know, but otherwise it was quite different.  Elmore Leonard sure knows how to tell a story though.  For a cat-and-mouse story with such high stakes, there's a remarkable amount of humor and wit.  I definitely need to pick up more from Leonard.  Four stars.

No Second Chance.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Dr. Marc Seidman awakens to find himself in an ICU, hooked up to an IV, his head swathed in bandages. Twelve days earlier, he had an enviable life as a successful surgeon, living in a peaceful suburban neighborhood with his beautiful wife and a baby he adored. Now he lies in a hospital bed, shot by an unseen assailant. His wife has been killed, and his six-month-old daughter, Tara, has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, something arrives to give Marc new hope: a ransom note. The note is chilling, but Marc sees only one thing-he has the chance to save his daughter. He can't talk to the police or the FBI. He doesn't know who he can trust. And now the authorities are closing in on a new suspect: Marc himself. Mired in a deepening quicksand of violence and deadly secrets-about his wife, about an old love he's never forgotten, and about his own past-he clings to one, unwavering vow: to bring Tara home, at any cost.

My Thoughts-- Another great Harlan Coben book.  I sounds like a broken record at this point, but he's just so great at writing twisty, turn-y thrillers, and this one was no different.  Four stars.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Helene Zaharis's politician husband keeps her on a tight leash and cancels her credit cards as a way of controlling her. Lorna Rafferty is up to her eyeballs in debt and can't stop her addiction to Ebay. Sandra Vanderslice, battling agoraphobia, pays her shoe bills by working as a phone sex operator. And Jocelyn Bowen is a nanny for the family from hell (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house).  On Tuesday nights, these women meet to trade shoes, and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems—from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating. Funny, emotional, and powerful, Shoe Addicts Anonymous is the perfect read for any woman who has ever struggled to find the perfect fit. 

My Thoughts-- It took me a while to get into this one, but it really picked up about midway through. The second half was fantastic! Such a cute story about four women who have nothing in common but their love for shoes.  Four stars.

Songs of Willow Frost.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.  Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.

My Thoughts-- Oh gosh, this book was horrible.  Only by sheer will did I manage to finish it.  It was just ridiculously depressing, and the story just compounded sadness upon sadness.  And just when you think it can't get any sadder, it does.  Most of my time reading this book was spent wishing it was over. I don't remember the last book I read that was so depressing and hopeless. However, it did have a somewhat satisfying ending, so it gets an extra half star because I'm a sucker for a good ending.  One and a half stars.

Gone for Good.

GoodReads Synopsis-- As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken. Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins' affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman -- a girl Will had once loved -- was found brutally murdered in her family's basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished. And when his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good. Now eleven years have passed. Will has found proof that Ken is alive. And this is just the first in a series of stunning revelations as Will is forced to confront startling truths about his brother, and even himself. As a violent mystery unwinds around him, Will knows he must press his search all the way to the end. Because the most powerful surprises are yet to come.

My Thoughts-- Gone for Good is easily my favorite stand-alone Harlan Coben book.  So many twists and turns.  Just when you think you've figured it out, the ground shifts again.  But yet, it's not at all outrageous.  Harlan Coben walks that line expertly.  Five stars.

Twenties Girl.

GoodReads Synopsis-- Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they? When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie—a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance—mysteriously appears, she has one request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, because Sadie cannot rest without it.  Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from and about each other.

My Thoughts-- I loved this book!  Sophie Kinsella is hit or miss for me, and this was a spot-on hit.  Lara and Sadie were so hilarious together.  I laughed so hard at this book.  Five stars.

2015 Book Challenge.

One of my favorite things in the last few years has been participating in some blogger book challenges (Megan hosts my favorite one twice a year). Thanks to these challenges, I've been pulled out of my favorite genres, read books that I otherwise would not have read, and discovered wonderful new authors. Some of my favorite books have been discovered through these book challenges-- The Pilot's Wife, the Harry Potter series, and Hyperbole and a Half, just to name a few.

So I decided to make my own book challenge for the whole year! I took many categories from a popsugar list, some old challenges from Megan's blog, some links on pinterest, and some of my own ideas.

There are 44 categories on this list, and my goal is to read 52 books this year. So that leaves me with 8 "freebies" to read that are just for me. And I do have a few self-imposed rules: 

- All books must be over 200 pages long

- Only three re-reads allowed unless 1) it's been more than 10 years 

since I first read the book OR 2) the category calls for it.

- No counting one book for multiple categories. Each category gets its own book.

- I may switch books previously assigned to a category as the year goes, 

as long as they all get covered by only one book.

-All books must be started and finished within 2015, unless the category states otherwise.

So without further adieu, here's my list!